REFLECTIONS FOR EASTER 2014 PETER MILLAR
petermillarreflects.blogspot.co.uk
THE EASTER JOURNEY
The powerful, tender, painful and challenging events of Easter link our lives to followers of Christ in every nation. We also journey to Easter with the millions who – through the centuries – have followed the path of Jesus. This is a rather amazing reality in the modern world, with its often bland options and empty promises. At Easter time we also walk in a quite specific way alongside those who suffer in the world: the countless victims of war, injustice, and oppression, for it is through their lives that we understand more clearly the meaning of Christ’s coming to earth, of his ministry in a small corner of the Roman Empire, of his brutal death and of his rising to life. Without their companionship in our hearts, Easter becomes much less than it truly is in the mind of God. One thing is certain. As we reflect on the events of Easter we are propelled to encounter our world as it is, not as we may like it to be. A world full of contradiction, beauty, incredible pain - and all of it framed in uncertainty. That encounter makes Easter special. In the words of a poster: God matters: The World matters: We matter to God.
PALM SUNDAY Welcoming and Praising Mark 11: 1 - 11
In this passage we read of the “triumphant welcome into Jerusalem” as commentators describe it. In one sense it was triumphant on that first Palm Sunday, but as we know in retrospect, it was a short lived popular acclaim. The crowd welcomed their king riding on a humble beast as he rode into the very heart of the political and religious structures which would soon kill him. In some ways this event mirrors the fickleness of popularity. Of modern celebrity. One moment exalted, the next laid low. We see it every day, and we soon forget its victims.
Lord, we stand with our own palm branches to welcome you, yet hardly know what we do, for you come to us and uproot our preconceptions. Nor we do handle your humility well for it is so counter-cultural and we don’t often see it in our leaders. But let us greet you as you bless us, and let us try to experience your gentle passing-by, for you see us in the crowd and understand our longings.
MONDAY Reaching Out John 12: 1 - 11
This is the story of Jesus being anointed in the village of Bethany with an expensive perfume made of pure nard. An extravagant act of love done in the home of his close friend Mary. Yet it was an act which raised a basic question. Why spend this money when there is much poverty around? The same question is asked today – in a world of increasing human need. It’s never an easy question, but the world would be spiritually impoverished if it was devoid of acts of compassion, even if sometimes these acts are misunderstood in a world of much complexity and contradiction.
Friend of the Poor, help me always to go the extra mile for others and to give freely of myself and of my possessions, even if at times I am misunderstood.
TUESDAY Finding the Real Self John 12: 20 - 36
This passage is full of wisdom for our lives. It invites us to a new awareness of our deeper selves and to a profound understanding of why it is important not always to be imprisoned by the relentless demands of our ego. It also reminds us of how Jesus began to face up to his own suffering. And later it calls us to live in the light rather than in darkness: to live as people who have actually encountered the light of God. To discover within us the illumined mind.
Light of All, help us each day to walk on a path where there is light, even as we face the muddled-up-ness within ourselves: the irrational fears, the recurring questions, the explosive angers and the powerful passions hidden deep. And to walk on that path with humility – aware that there are no easy answers or quick fixes amidst the doubts and contradictions of our daily lives.
WEDNESDAY Being Betrayed John 13: 21 - 32
We fool ourselves if we say we have not known betrayal or betrayed another. May be not exactly in the way Christ experienced it, but there are the threads of betrayal in every life, even if we are reluctant to speak of them. Who has not let another person down at some point in time? And who has not felt hurt or anger at being betrayed? Jesus faced up to this uncomfortable truth in his last hours. Even when it brings great pain we have to do the same.
Hope of the World, you were betrayed not by a stranger but by a good friend: let down as we can be too. Sometimes it’s those closest to us who betray us most and how gut-wrenching that is. Yet day after day, you call our name, and even in the midst of betrayals your touch is as gentle as silence.
THURSDAY Serving in Love John 13: 1 - 17 and 31 - 35
What would life be like if it was not punctuated by simple acts of love: of caring? Not great happenings that make the head-lines, but something quite different. The silent, tender, mostly unrecorded works of love and of sheer goodness going on every day and everywhere. The giving of oneself as Jesus did as he washed the feet of his disciples. The light-filled moments of giving, of touching, of understanding. That spontaneous reaching out which never has a price-tag on it.
Lord, help us to pause, to listen, to be present and to reach out in love today. Not counting the cost. Not analysing our behaviour. Doing something beautiful for God right here and now – knowing that in such a simple act we come close to the One who touches us all.
GOOD FRIDAY Suffering John 19: 17 - 30
The agony and death of Jesus. At the heart of human experience is the reality of suffering. As one writer put it, “the torment is unavoidable.” We all know that - even if it may bring us to a place of desperation. We cannot run from it, and nor did Jesus, tortured on a cross in a situation essentially beyond description. Let us feel the sorrows of others and of ourselves, and through them our precious humanity in Jesus Christ. In the words of Brian Wren: “Life emptied of all meaning, drained out in black distress, can share in broken silence our deepest emptiness.”
Suffering Jesus, give us a moment to stand near a cross - whether your one in Palestine, or today’s ones carried by the oppressed, betrayed and forgotten of our world. To hear again the tears of God and the tears of the world - and not to run away.
HOLY SATURDAY Saying Farewell John 19: 38 - 42
The burial of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, a secret follower, had asked Pilate if he could take the body, and with Nicodemus he lovingly laid Jesus to rest in a new tomb close to where earlier he had been crucified. The moment of farewell - understood by us all. Every emotion in the book joins hands as we bid good-bye at cemetery or crematorium. Laughter and tears; regret and memory; inner pain and quiet pride; anger and grace; hope and bewilderment…the list is endless. And was it different then, that day in Jerusalem, when grief was raw and hearts were sore?
When the moment arrives to say good-bye, help us to know that we are not alone, but held.
Embraced in a wider love, till every heart is healed and every wrong set right in you, O Lord.
EASTER DAY Living with Hope John 20: 1 - 18
The ones who loved him dearly discovered in the early dawning that the tomb was empty. The stone at the entrance was no longer in place and when she discovered this Mary Magadalene went running to Simon Peter. Her dramatic words flow down through the centuries, “they have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him.” They did not know. Nor would we have known. But now we do, for Christ is risen, the tomb is empty and lasting hope is real.
Lord of Life, touch our lives with the hope and healing of the first Easter. May we know we carry your image deep within us. And as our journey goes on, may we live in the certainty that we are befriended by you and empowered by your Spirit, as with all your people we affirm your goodness at the heart of humanity – planted more deeply than all that is wrong.
EASTER MONDAY Moving On John 21: 1 - 14
Here we read of how Jesus appeared after the Resurrection to seven of his disciples. Initially they did not recognise him, but then they became aware that the one who was with them by the lake-side was Jesus. This was the gradual dawning that God is in the midst of life. It is a recognition not always easy: it can be a hard road fraught with frustrations and inner questioning. Yet this search is itself of God, for as we seek we are returning home to the sacredness in ourselves and in the world. God’s world - in which the sacred and the secular are held in one. A truth we know through the life of Christ on this earth. In the words of an old Celtic prayer, “the one who keeps our soul and heals it, at morning, noon and night.”
This is a new day, Lord, and
I have no idea what it may bring to my life
but whatever happens in it
may I go through it in the knowledge
that I actually matter to you.
+++ AN END NOTE: These Easter reflections and prayers are by myself and there is no copyright on them. They have not appeared in any of my books. If you would like to contact me about them please e-mail me. Thanks again for all your messages. May the Easter hope resonate in us all and in the world.
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