They Called It The Streak!

 

I am old enough to remember streaking back in the early1970s. I suppose it still happens today. But, with many people’s wardrobe choices it can be hard to tell if they are streaking or dressed! And, as the morals in my country have been constantly eroding, I am not sure there would be a public out cry if someone was found to be streaking. I am not even sure too many people would bother to sat, “Don’t look Ethel!” But, have treated streaking (in the 70s) as if it was something new; when, in fact, as Christians, we can at eh very least trace streaking back to the biblical days.

On 29 April we are set to celebrate Saint Mark.  I always read with amusement as a child Mark 14:51, “And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.” Yet, as I studied the scripture more maturely the verse became less funny and more sorrowful. While St. Mark never says that he is that young man, tradition and scholarship have come to the conclusion that ‘young man’ is in fact the Gospel writer.

The episode adds nothing to the Jesus Story. Yet, for some reason the writer preserved the story. One reason many scholars believe the story was kept was that the young man who ran away naked was none other than Mark himself.

Mark sets out his Gospel with a thesis statement: The beginning of the good news [the gospel] of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1). And throughout his Gospel that thesis is asserted, but not by the people who Christ is trying to ‘win over.’ The Demons know who he is. A very shaky reply from Peter that could almost be phrased as a question as much as statement, says He’s the Messiah. And, of course, the final proclamation in Mark 15:39, “surely this man is the son of G(g)od,” leaves one to wonder just which god the centurion was referencing!

As we approach the feast day of St. Mark, 25 March, which Christ do we worship and proclaim? Do our own demons know more about the Christ than we do and keep us from worshipping? Or, are we like Peter and say his is the Messiah in more of a question form than a statement? Maybe, you proclaim that surely this man is the Son of God; but he is a God you’ve made him into as opposed to the God of the Bible, a thoroughly modern and updated god. Or even sadder, maybe you are willing to simply run away naked instead of being identified with the one true God.

St. Mark gave us sign post that the Christ was God’s Son, the true Messiah of Israel. As we remember St. Mark let us remember he told us about the “good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And he proclaimed throughout his book that “Surely this man must be the Son of God.” From the beginning to the end, and all points in the middle, Mark made the case that the Christ is our savior!

Until next time May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You!

Nonsense, Easter, Empty Tombs, Stones

A Friend of mine asked/mentioned on a social media site, “One thing I never understood about the story though. Why was the giant stone rolled to the side of the tomb? He didn’t need a doorway. In the next few days, if you read the scripture there are several instances where Jesus “appears” which it makes it sound like he was spirit?

Ok, let me answer your question with a question—or two or three! You said you never understood … So let me ask you what is understandable, what makes sense in the entire story? The answer is ‘nothing.’

The Roman guard was not going to let a, for lack of a better word, prisoner—at least a body under their watch—escape. They would have received the death penalty for such. Yet, they shook and became like dead men.

That the stone was rolled away would have been a supernatural feat. We would have never been able to roll the stone away. It would have weighed several tons. It sat in a trench and rolled down to cover the entrance. Yet, the Greek implies that it was not rolled—either left or right—in the trench; it was rolled outward away from the tomb. This would not have been an easy task for men.

Who were the first to discover the risen Christ? Women. Women were tasked with telling the others that the Christ had been raised. A woman was not a believed or relied on source in the ancient world. They could not testify in a court of law; and now they are given the burden of telling everyone that Christ has risen in the middle of history not at the end of time! Probably why in Mark’s gospel they don’t tell anyone! Who would have believed them!

First, while Jews, and Jews alone, believed in a bodily resurrection, they believed it would come at the end of history. The resurrection of the Christ came in the middle of history. And the women? As the women went to the tomb they said there was an earthquake. That was the stone being rolled away—the angel sat on the stone. I’m 99.44/100^th percent sure the stone was rolled away so the witnesses could know that what had happened had indeed happened.

The Jews had had many people come and claim to be the Messiah, the anointed one of Israel. They had been put to death. Jesus was no different. He came made his claim and was put to death. They did not expect a resurrection, not until the end of time when everyone would be resurrected. Women were not reliable witnesses. Romans are not going to let a body under their watch disappear (remember these were highly trained fighting men).

Nothing in the story makes sense. But, then it does. As other messiah want-to-bes had come and gone, Jesus, the true Messiah, had to rise. What he accomplished, he accomplished on the cross on ‘Good Friday.’ After his death the world was a different place. God’s new creation was taking place. The resurrection was the proof of what had happen on Friday!

Now, I believe Jesus was raised before the stone was rolled away. It was rolled away so that it could be shown to be empty. But, something needs to be remembered. While did have those ‘spirit’ aspect like being able to appear in places, he also had a physicality ae to tough the wounds. This suggest some type of human body. Also, He had to appear somewhat human as he was mistaken for the gardener. The fact that the disciples didn’t recognize him walking down the road doesn’t point to him being changed so much as it points to them not expecting him to be raised!

When he ascended into Heaven some of earth went to Heaven; some days later when the Holy Spirit came down (Acts 2) some of Heaven came to earth. I think we too often we think of dying and going to heaven as the end. But if we follow Christ’s example, we will die and be with our Lord for a period of time and then there will be the resurrection. Our bodies will be raised on a New Earth with a New Heaven. So, Heaven is great place to visit but it’s not the final stop.  And nothing in these stories makes sense because it was something the world had never seen and will never see again! And, if everything made perfect sense there would be no room for faith.

May our faith guide us through this Eastertide as we move forward to Pentecost.

 

Until next time, May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You!

 

Simply A Cross

One of the most popular pieces of jewelry is a cross. Not just among the religious, mind you, but among society in general. They come form the plain and simply to the most diamond studded bling. Even among denominations that only a few years ago might have shunned the wearing of such a sacred symbol, crosses adorn the necks, the ears, and anywhere else they can find to put one—on jewelry that is! We glamorize the cross on everything but seem to somewhat gloss over it in our churches. Sure, we sing a few songs such as the ‘Old Rugged Cross,’ or, ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.’ But for the most part we skip past the cross and get right to the resurrection.

            As we hold our blingy crosses in such high esteem, even being proud when we see others adorned with them, for the First Century Jew, or anyone else for that matter, the cross was not the pretty thing we have made it out to be. The cross was a scary symbol. It represented the most horrid way a man could die. As one walked down the first century road, they could see the sights of the dying hung on the cross. Maybe the stench of rotting flesh filled the air. Buzzards would have been circling, waiting for the precise, right moment to swoop down for the awaiting feast. Flies would been buzzing around and maggots filling the open wounds. A deterrent to crime. An example set for one not to rebel against the empire. Yes, the cross.

            Yet too often we want to, in our we want it right now mental, go straight on to the resurrection. But, it was the cross on that—what has come to be called Good Friday—afternoon that changed the world. For St. Paul, he maintained that when in Corinth he vowed to know nothing but Christ and Christ crucified. It was not the resurrection—Sunday morning—it was Friday afternoon. Sadly, we look closer at the resurrection and skim the wondrous cross that changed the creation that God had once called ‘good,’ but had strayed from God’s will and way.

            While we look at the crosses we have around our necks, pierced in our ears, tattooed on our bodies, we forget what the cross symbolized to the Jewish people. We tend to forget that it was the cross, the wondrous cross, that on a Friday afternoon, changed the world. It was because of the cross that the proclamation ‘Surely, this man was the Son of God,’ not the resurrection, though by the resurrection He was declared to be the Son of God by the Holy Spirit.

            The Cross changed the world. The Cross made way for us to walk on a new earth, in the future, while still living in the present. The Cross, the Wonderous, Old Rugged Cross, changed the world; the resurrection was the proof that it had happened.

 

Collect for Good Friday:

Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies’ sake. Amen.

 

Until next time, May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You!

Decisions, Decisions, Decision

Did you ever have to make up your mind? Decisions surround us. All through the day we make tons of them; some we make unconsciously. According to UNC TV we make on the average 35,000 conscious decisions during a day. Psychology Today suggest that we make a decision every two seconds. I actually think a bit more than I every thought I did! And making  decision to do one thing is also a decision to not do something else. As Rolheiser put it, “Every choice is a thousand renunciations. To choose one thing is to turn one’s back on many others.”  Yet, with all of the decisions we make, they each carry consequences.

In his book, Decision Points, George W. Bush started out by addressing his alcohol problem. But he ends the chapter writing, “There’s no way to know where my life would have headed if I hadn’t made the decision to quit drinking. But I am certain that I would not be recording these thoughts as a former governor of Texas and president of the United States.”

As we are in the Season of Lent, a season where we reflect on our baptisms, or prepare to be baptized; we reflect on the greatest decision we can/will/have ever make (made)! It is the decision that changes our lives. As Pope John Paul II put it, “Baptism frees man from original sin and forgives his sins, saves him from slavery to evil and is a sign of his rebirth in the Holy Spirit, it imparts to him a new life.”

Before we made that decision to be baptized we were lost in sin. One of the most powerful autobiographies I have ever read, St. Patrick’s Confessio, started off liked this, “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers.” There is where we are without baptism: a sinner, the least of all believers. We are the least of all because we stand apart from God.

But, there was good news in the form of the Gospel of God, the Gospel about his Son. The ‘gospel,’ euangelion <Greek>, was a proclamation. Usually it meant a royal proclamation such as a royal birthday, or a new king had ascended to the throne. In the case of the gospel of God, the gospel about his Son, the proclamation was that something had happened on the cross that first Good Friday by six o’clock in the afternoon. And, as a result the world was now a different place. And as sinners, that new world is the place that our baptism offers to us. Three days later when Christ was resurrected, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it gave us the proof of what happened on the cross that Friday afternoon. The world changed. That was the proclamation. For us the proclamation is that we can take part in that new world. And, it is through baptism that we take our place in that new world.

In our baptism we take part in the death of the Christ. St. Paul wrote to the church in Rome, we who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were indeed buried with Him through baptism into his death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).  As Paul continued, ‘our old self was crucified with Him so that our sinful body might be done away with” (v.6). Baptism changes “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner,” to, “My name is Patrick. I am a child of God.”

Baptism saved us (1 Peter 3:21). Baptism clothed us in Christ (Galatians 3:27). Baptism filled us with the Holy Spirit (Acts 3:28). Baptism allowed us to walk in a newness of Life (Romans 6:4). While there are many sacraments, baptism is THE sacrament. For without it it is impossible to partake in any other sacrament.

Lent is a time to reflect back on our baptism. And while we may make 35,000 decisions a day, while we may make a decision every two seconds, and while with each decision we make there is a renunciation of a thousand other possible decisions, every decision we make pales in comparison of that one decision we made to be baptized. While Lent is a good time to reflect on that decision, it should also be remembered with every other decision of the year because “By Baptism we are made flesh of the Crucified” (St. Leo). As St. Maximilian Kolbe put it, “The soul is regenerated in the sacred waters of baptism and thus becomes God’s child.” Decisions come and go. But one decision, the decision to be baptized, should transform our lives like no other.

 

Until Next Time May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You!

Station One: The Christ, The Sadmann, The Mob

We live now in a world where whatever the mob mentality wants, the mob mentality gets. Our world is constantly changing through mob mentality. Speakers who have a point of view that differs from the narrative of the mob are shut down through mob mentality, mobs that get violent! Children are allowed to be killed after they are born, under the guise of women’s healthcare, due to mob mentality. A spark becomes a forest fire in 2019 due to mob mentality.

Take the case of Nick Sandmann. He stood still. He said nothing. He did nothing. Well, he did smile. But, yet, he become a racist due to mob mentality. Silently he stood there. And in all of ten minutes the mob ruled him guilty. The mob labeled him a racist. The mob yelled prosecute. The mob ruled. The facts meant nothing. Print media, visual media, talking heads—social media was agog—were ready to crucify this kid all of 15 years old. They knew the truth. He was guilty! Then the facts came out. Truth can be relative; facts are not. The facts were that the whole encounter was twisted to make this young man who was actually innocent to be guilty. The facts were the facts. The mob rule was wrong. The mob had twisted the facts to come up with a truth to fit their narrative that was far from the facts.

But, let it be understood, mob mentality is nothing new. While we can say the Messiah was born to die; he was born to go to the Cross, it was mob mentality that sent him there.  And now during the season of Lent, as we look at the Stations of the Cross, we look back to the First Station. We look back 2000 years on mob mentality at its finest. We see the Christ condemned to death.

“Then the high priest tore his robe” (Matthew 26:65).  The mob was getting ready to cry out! “He has uttered blasphemy.” The mob grows. They not only become more in number, they become more intense that this man, the Savior of the world was guilty. “What further witness do we need?” We know it all. They knew the truth; why should they even worry with the facts? “[They] have now heard his blasphemy.” Armed with truth, regardless of the facts, they knew “He [deserved] death.” The mob was riled up. The mob would get even more intense as “they spit in face” and as they “stuck him and slapped him.”

As the Christ stood before Pilate the yelled, “crucify him.” When Pilate asked what evil he had done, the crowd yelled “crucify him” all the more (Mark 15). It seemed Pilate wanted to let him live; but the mob mentality was overruling him. “But the chief priest stirred up the crowd.” One bad actor and the mob mentality was ready to act. The mob was ready to send an innocent man to his death.

Jesus stood before Pilate an innocent man. Yet, because of the mob mentality, stirred up by just a few, he stood there condemned to death. A guilty murderer is released and an innocent man, the Savior of the world is condemned to death on a cross. The Messiah is scourged and “[Pilate] delivered him to be crucified” (Mark 15:15). Condemned by the mob; delivered to the mob. He was an innocent man condemned by mob mentality. He stood silent; ” He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). 

As we visit the first station of the cross the season of Lent. Let us move away from mob mentality. Let us follow the facts that lead to truth. The mob mentality was willing to kill the truth: [Jesus] is the way the truth and the life (John 14:6). Are you letting mob mentality keep you away from real truth? Are you condemning the Christ because the ‘in crowd’ thinks He should be cast out? Are you following the mob of 2019 that has again condemned the Christ and tried to keep him out of all forms of public life?

Collect for the First Station of the Cross and St. Patrick’s Day:

God, my God, omnipotent King, I humbly adore thee. Thou art King of kings, Lord of lords. Thou art the Judge of every age. Thou art the Redeemer of souls. Thou art the Liberator of those who believe. Thou art the Hope of those who toil. Thou art the Comforter of those in sorrow. Thou art the Way to those who wander. Thou art Master to the nations. Thou art the Creator of all creatures. Thou art the Lover of all good. Thou art the Prince of all virtues. Thou art the joy of all Thy saints. Thou art life perpetual. Thou art joy in truth. Thou art the exultation in the eternal fatherland. Thou art the Light of light. Thou art the Fountain of holiness. Thou art the glory of God the Father in the height. Thou art Savior of the world. Thou art the plenitude of the Holy Spirit. Thou sittest at the right hand of God the Father on the throne, reigning for ever —St. Patrick

Until next time may the God Lord Bless and Keep You!

Lint, Lent, Belly Button Scent

March 6^th marks the beginning of Lent 2019. It’s that period of time where we fast from things that keep us from drawing closer to God, in hopes that we draw closer to the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. Just as we would, hopefully daily, we would clean the lint from our belly, during the 40 days of fasting in Lent we would clean the lint from our lives. We attempt to say goodbye—remove that unclean lint—to the things that keep us from the new life with God. Or, as N. T. Wright put it, “we say a firm goodbye to everything in us that still clings to the old!”

As Ronald Rolheiser said, “It is no easy task to walk this earth and find peace.” But, when we clean away our lint, during Lent with the hope that it stays away, walking this earth becomes easier due to our walking closer to God.

Our Ash Wednesday service takes on a journey both backward and forward. We have the sign of the cross made on our foreheads in ashes. These ashes take us both back in time and into the future. We can look back at all the people in biblical times that mourn, our showed their grief by sitting in ashes, or placing ashes on the heads. So, our ashes will symbolize the ‘junk’ we’ve removed from our own lives. But, they show a bit more!
The sign of the Cross points to something better than what we are leaving behind. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that when he was with them he vowed to know nothing but Christ, and [Christ] crucified. It was all about that cross. When we ‘survey that wondrous Cross’ we find that there, our new life begins. It was there that the New World began. It all happened on that old rugged cross. The earth was there to be forever changed. Then, three days later came the resurrection; the proof that what happened on the cross was real, that the world was forever changed.

Our foreheads are marked with those ashes—symbols of those things, our past, that we are giving up in order that we may more fully be closer to God and do his work—in the sign of a cross—identifying us with the New World that began on a Friday with the death of the Christ. The ashes then look back on what we’ve left and forward to the life refined by the fire given to us  through the work of the Lord on the cross!

Let your Lenten fast draw you closer to that Cross. Clean you bellybuttons so to speak so your lives will be a sweet scent going up to the Lord!

 

Until Next Time, may the Good Lord Bless And Keep You!

 

Judges, King, and Kavanaugh

I have been watching—with some amazement, though I must admit not unsuspected—the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court hopeful Brett Kavanaugh. And, so far it has gone along the lines that I had long figured it would go; the Republicans asking questions of substance (for the most part) and the Democrats (for the most part) looking for that ‘gotcha’ moment and posturing for possible presidential runs. What surprises is me most, I guess, is that we would attack the character of this man and try to prevent his rising to the highest court in the land.

I will allude to Matthew 25, as did candidate Kavanaugh. Areal quick paraphrase, “When I hungry you fed me; when I was thirty you fed me; when I was thirsty you gave me drink …” With Kavanaugh we are talking about a man who gives back to the communities. By his own admission he feeds the hungry; he gives them food and drink. He reaches out to the kids of the community by coaching basketball. But what impressed me even more, when he noticed there was a shortage of blacks applying to be clerks he went to those, who were possible in prisoned by being locked out of these positions, and not only encouraged them to apply, but taught them how to apply, where to apply, what they needed to read to be the best at getting the positions. He went so far as to give these bright young minds his email and phone number to contact him for any information or help he was able to give.

In our age of ‘gotcha,’ posturing, of trying to divide America, maybe we could all take a step back and learn something from the new Supreme Court nominee. Maybe we all have something to offer our communities—something other than government. Maybe that something we can offer is ourselves. Mother Teresa said, “If you can’t feed 100 people, then feed just one.” What if we fed that one person? What if we visited that one person in prison? What if instead of looking to divide and tear done a good man, we looked for ways to bring each of us together? Maybe if we decided to step aside from our labels of Democrat and Republican and embraced our titles of Children of the King we will see the world in a new light, a light changed on the cross.

 

God, gods,Progressive, or Ancient

I have been reading exchanges concerning Pride Fest and the LGBTQ+ (I’m not exactly sure about the ‘Q’ and am totally clueless about the ‘+’) in my local newspaper—hopefully many of you still remember newspapers! As I read I notice the word progressive coming up and yet, this movement is anything but a progression; it is a regression to an ancient time. Embracing the Epicureanism of the Enlightenment, they have deemed the creator God to be some far-off deity that does not interact with his creation. So, His truths do not matter and whatever truth they decide to follow is their truth.

And while they do not follow the one true and living God, though many make that claim, they have followed an ancient God: Aphrodite—the god of sexual love (Her son Eros had affairs with both men and women; Ares and Hades being the only gods that did not have affairs with men).

It is also a return to the ancient religion of Gnosticism which stated that the flesh was evil but what was inside—the spirit/soul/psyche—was good. So, while we may see a man on the outside, the women—the one he wants us to pretend he is—on the inside is good and that’s what counts. This type of dualism presents a tension that we are to live with: see one thing yet pretend it is another, all the while forgetting what the one true God created and called good.

We’ve all heard the saying, “when the gods are angry.” Yet, it seems in the quest to progress angering the one true, living, creator, God is something with which many have no problem.

Until Next Time May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You!

MAKING BELIEVE, DRAGON THINGS, AND REAL LIFE

I’ll admit that I am old enough to remember the song, “Making Believe.” And as a kid I ‘made believe’ as  much as did any other child. Yet, with age ‘painted wings and giant things’ make way for other things—hopefully real life. Yet, in our current society we are asked to make to make, well, make believe. We are asked to make believe that God’s creation doesn’t exist as God created.

A recent article told of a lady who had a baby. Not too much ‘making believe’ so far as that happens daily. Yet, in this particular situation, the lady, Sabastian Sparks as CNN reports, who had the baby wants us to pretend—to pretend after she has given birth, after she breast fed—that she is now the baby’s father. Now, to take another twist, the person who fathered the baby was the mother’s boyfriend. And—sit down for this—he now wants us to ‘make believe’ that he is the baby’s mother! In one sentence: Regardless Of the DNA; regardless of what God created; we are asked to make believe that the baby’s mother is the baby’s father and the baby’s father is the baby’s mother. You can almost imagine the child trying to explain in school how his father—remember he is the mother who wants us to pretend he is the father—gave birth to him and breast fed him. And by that time the child could have made some decision about how he will identify. This entire paragraph made my head swim typing it!

Maybe, just maybe, society has ‘made believe’ just too much. God made man and He made woman. He didn’t ask us to ‘make believe’ one was the other. In each he gave DNA specific to their particular gender. We were not designed to pretend that a man was a woman and a woman was a man. God ordained biblical manhood and womanhood. And he didn’t ask that we pretend that we were the other, but that we be what we are. Maybe the degradation of society has something to do with our pretending things—people—are something other than what they are. When we are to ‘make believe’ we see society through a skewed lens. Maybe it’s time we step back and stop ‘making believe’ and just believe in man as God created him and woman as God created her. Society will flourish when we reclaim biblical manhood and womanhood.

 

Collect: Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Until next time may The God Lord Bless and Keep you!

A Cross, Some Thoughts, Surveying the Wondrous Cross

One of the most popular pieces of jewelry is a cross. Not just among the religious, mind you, but among society in general. They come form the plain and simply to the most diamond studded bling. Even among denominations that only a few years ago might have shunned the wearing of such a sacred symbol, crosses adorn the necks, the ears, and anywhere else they can find to put one—on jewelry that is! We glamorize the cross on everything but seem to somewhat gloss over it in our churches. Sure, we sing a few songs such as the ‘Old Rugged Cross,’ or, ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.’ But for the most part we skip past the cross and get right to the resurrection.

            As we hold our blingy crosses in such high esteem, even being proud when we see others adorned with them, for the First Century Jew, or anyone else for that matter, the cross was not the pretty thing we have made it out to be. The cross was a scary symbol. It represented the most horrid way a man could die. As one walked down the first century road, they could see the sights of the dying hung on the cross. Maybe the stench of rotting flesh filled the air. Buzzards would have been circling, waiting for the precise, right moment to swoop down for the awaiting feast. Flies would been buzzing around and maggots filling the open wounds. A deterrent to crime. An example set for one not to rebel against the empire. Yes, the cross.

            Yet too often we want to, in our we want it right now mental, go straight on to the resurrection. But, it was the cross on that—what has come to be called Good Friday—afternoon that changed the world. For St. Paul, he maintained that when in Corinth he vowed to know nothing but Christ and Christ crucified. It was not the resurrection—Sunday morning—it was Friday afternoon. Sadly, we look closer at the resurrection and skim the wondrous cross that changed the creation that God had once called ‘good,’ but had strayed from God’s will and way.

            While we look at the crosses we have around our necks, pierced in our ears, tattooed on our bodies, we forget what the cross symbolized to the Jewish people. We tend to forget that it was the cross, the wondrous cross, that on a Friday afternoon, changed the world. It was because of the cross that the proclamation ‘Surely, this man was the Son of God,’ not the resurrection, though by the resurrection He was declared to be the Son of God by the Holy Spirit.

            The Cross changed the world. The Cross made way for us to walk in the new earth, the future, while still living in the present. The Cross, the Wonderous, Old Rugged Cross, changed the world; the resurrection was the proof that it had happened.

 

Collect for Good Friday:

Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies’ sake. Amen.

 

Until next time, may the God Lord bless and keep you!