Easter image crisis

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Happy and Blessed Easter to everyone.
So as has been my wont for the Lenten season culminating in the Three Days, I have been changing my Facebook cover photo to reflect the various events - Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and even Holy Saturday.  Finding an appropriate photo amounted to simply Googling images for the day.  -- Until Easter.
   Suddenly, I am confronted not with pictures of the open tomb or a sparkly, risen Christ, but rather with dozens of images of Easter eggs and Easter bunnies, interspersed with family pictures that were taken on some Easter of the past, and of course, Easter Island.  I got to the bottom of the page and clicked on 'view more images' only to get more eggs and bunnies and families and Easter Island.
   Scrolling back up, I did find an appropriate picture amid all the others, which I finally posted.  I had to ponder for a while to come up with an answer as to why it was so easy to find an image even for Tuesday of Holy Week and yet so hard to find a Christian expression for Easter.  Finally I realised that while the Lenten Season and Holy Week are only religious in nature, Easter is as secular as Christmas for the majority of folks in North America.  There is something safe and cuddly about Santa Claus and cute bunnies.  There is nothing safe about the Incarnation and the Resurrection.  The babe in the manger might be cuddly, but shortly after the birth, Herod slaughters every male child in Bethlehem under two years of age.   We might be happy about new life in resurrection, but not so much about the pain and anguish and the crucifixion that goes before it.  The mandate that Jesus gives us to love one another is not often warm and cuddly - more likely difficult and painful.  The servant does not pick the master.  We serve as Christ served; we love as Christ loved.  It lead our Lord to his death on the cross; it has lead many Christians to death for witnessing to that Love. 

Chocolate bunnies and jelly beans are eventually all eaten, but Love remains.

Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday is the quintessential day of waiting.  After two days of special services and special meaning on Thursday and Friday, we come to the day where nothing much happens, except waiting.  When I was younger, Holy Saturday was the day we coloured our Easter eggs and got our Easter baskets in order, though we still weren't allowed to eat any of the candy.  In some churches there is an Easter Vigil service, but that starts very late in the night and carries on till early morning on Easter Day.
   So we wait.  We anticipate Easter; it's right there; we can just about reach out and touch it, but not quite.  Holy Saturday could be a great day of contemplation and meditation, a bit of a lull in the Great Three Days.  But for most of us it's simply the day to get ready for Easter.  It is after all, a Saturday much like any other, a chance to go to the store which was closed yesterday, a day to watch sports, a day to catch up on things around the house.
   But always in the back of my mind, there has been the sense of great things to come.  And so they are.  Blessed Holy Saturday.

Mandatum

Today is Maundy Thursday.  Not all Christians use that term; Lutherans, among others, do.  Today we remember the institution of the Holy Communion [Eucharist] by Jesus at the Last Supper.  But interestingly, the term Maundy does not come from the Synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke] where the Last Supper is described in detail - including the Words of Institution of the Eucharistic Prayer.  Rather, the word derives from the Latin mandatum which is usually translated command, but it also the root for the English word 'mandate.'  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, 'A new commandment I give you: Love one another.'  This is one of two mandates that Jesus give his followers, and the only one in the Gospel of John; the only one given before his resurrection. [The other is the Great Commission: Go, preach the Gospel to all the world.]
   In this simple sentence, Jesus sums up his entire ministry, his entire Gospel -- Love one another.  There is no other requirement for the Christian Life; there is no qualification in the statement.  The followers of Jesus are asked to do nothing else. The rest of the Gospel, the rest of the New Testament, the rest of Scripture refines that statement, explains that statement.  It is not something to which we are forced to subscribe, not a legal requirement.  It is the mandate of our Lord: to follow Jesus is to live the life of Love, to live the life of service to others.  As Jesus, our Master, washed the disciples' feet on that Thursday in humble service to show his Love, so we are to serve and to love, to love by serving.
   Some have wondered openly about our choice to do ministry in Guyana:  To move there on our own dime, to be paid the same compensation as the other Guyanese Pastors, to rely on local healthcare, to forego pension contributions.  But we find ourselves in a situation where we can do this.  For Vivian and I, at this time, this is the way we serve, the way to love one another - not just that circle of folks in North America - but to stretch our love to those further from us, fellow travellers who share the mandate to Love.  Today we celebrate and remember the giving of that mandate to everyone.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday.  Vivian [the Rev] pointed out this morning that it is the only church festival that is named after foliage.
   It was only a few years ago, while reading a novel that takes place in roughly the same cultural setting that I realised why the palms and robes were placed on the road -- to keep down the dust, making the trip more enjoyable for both the crowd and for Jesus.  I'm sure the robes were also symbolic of service to the personage who walked or rode over them.


In many churches, they have pretty much given up on Lent, in terms of extra services or giving up things for Lent.  Most folks are too busy to spend the extra time for additional services in the middle of the week, or so they say.  I remember coming home from school and having to jump into my homework right away because we had to go to church on Wednesday nights during Lent.  Now some churches don't bother, but they try to get people to come out for Holy Week services - Thursday, Friday, and maybe a special 'sunrise' service on Sunday, after which breakfast is served.  

But in this modern day when we don't want to have any negative feelings or experience any sadness, many skip right from Palm Sunday to Easter ... good feelings all around and no extra services to contend with. 

But now that I have a choice, I find I need Lent to properly understand Easter.  Not that I have ever been big on giving up for Lent, but a time for introspection, for thinking about the Law and the Gospel, for considering God's plan for the world from a different angle -- these are all important for the culmination of the celebration which is Easter.  In the Gospel of John, the crucifixion reveals the glory of God, but it takes the validation of Easter for us to see it.  It is Lent that reminds us that to follow Jesus is to live a life of service; it is Easter that gives us the strength to do that.  Knowing the ending helps us live the middle. 

Hosanna in the Highest -- Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Big week

Big week or so [why I haven't been blogging].  My birthday - picture taken at the pub by friend and colleague Grant Dixon
 [http://sideways-glance.com/].  My brother Kent and family [minus one adult child] came calling before we depart Nova Scotia.  My [and Vivian's] son had his birthday [just 30 years and a week younger than myself].  Brother and family departed [not as in departed this mortal coil, just left for home].  And now today, our wedding anniversary [Vivian and I, just in case you have lost track of who's who by now] - our 38th.  I don't suspect we will do much for the grand event -- it being a Saturday [day before Sunday] when the wife is busy, not to mention that we need to start the big push to get ready to depart [again, not this mortal coil] for Guyana via Saskatchewan.  New passports have arrived, and Vivian's official Call from the ELCGuyana to make her an official member of that church.
  I have marked my calendar with count-down days so that I can keep track of how close we are to leaving; I need to keep my anxiety/panic level in mid-range so that we can get the work done, but the level doesn't rise too high so that it is incapacitating. Lutherans always live in a dialectic - Law and Gospel, Saint and Sinner.  I should be used to it by now. 

Today in history

The Papal bull Injunctum nobis (14 March 1543) - 470 years ago - removed the restriction that the Society of Jesus could have only 60 members.  Without that, we might not have Pope Francis today.
  But the day is significant in other ways.  One hundred Thirty-four years ago, Albert Einstein was born.  And in these last days - 62 years ago - I was born. 
  There are other things, too, of course, but you will have to look them up for yourself.  In our family, the 62nd birthday has special significance.  Both my father and one uncle died just before their 62nd birthdays, so it is a milestone of sorts to reach it.  For me personally, besides being alive, I have opted to take my US Social Security rather than wait another 4 years, though the first cheque doesn't come till May 3rd.  It will be the padding we might need while in Guyana, or just extra money when we get back.
  And the special things I'm doing today?  Vivian had planned to give me a pastry with a candle in it when we visited the Thursday Market, but before that we had an appointment for our final booster for childhood diseases.  The doctor was late [not in the terminal sense], so by the time we got to the Market, the group we hang with had already departed - alas and alack.  So we came home without our mini-celebration.  My older brother did call on Skype, so we had a short conversation. A friend sent an eCard.  Vivian said the watch we bought on Monday was my present. Our son sent a brief message on Facebook.  And tonight, there is a meeting of the Lunenburg Photo Club.
  I'm sure that Pope Francis is having a much more interesting and busier day.  Does he set his own schedule?  Does he know how many people work in the Vatican? [According to one estimate by Pope John XXIII, about half of them :-) ]  Does he know which path the Church of Rome should take? He might get the chance later today to unseal the Papal Apartments so the cleaners can get in to spruce the place up, but he still won't be moving in just yet.  With 1.2 Billion Roman Catholics and countless others watching, I'm sure he is very careful about each step he takes.

Considering the alternatives, give me the quiet day.

Dad's tools

and then there were the tools.
  Since 1983 when my father died, I have had some of his tools.  I got more of them along the way at various times.  Dad was a machinist during WWII and then worked on building a house when they settled in Indianapolis.  And more than that, I think he just liked tools.  I also inherited some of Grandfather's tools and even, we think, some from Great-grandfather.  I was a cabinetmaker at the time, and so the tools naturally fell to me.  Even when I was doing other things, I still tinkered, moving all those tools, large and small, along with us across the continent.
  But now, we are moving to Guyana, storing our goods till we return.  Actually, selling or giving away nearly everything first, then storing just the essentials.  The big decision for me was the tools.  It was easy for me to give up the pots and pans and even the stereo and TV, but the tools were another matter.  These were, in a sense, heritage items, passed down for generations in some cases.  How could I part with them; what would my siblings think if I discarded Dad's Craftsman table saw?
  But over the years I have come to realise that Dad and Grandfather thought of these things as merely tools.  A lot of tools have already been disposed of in various ways, but somehow these remaining seem to be more connected to my image of my father.  I remember things he built with that table saw; I watched him use it.  But wouldn't he say it was just a tool?
  Maybe not.  I remember the pile of cherry lumber that Dad carted around the country for years.  Yes, he made a few things with it.  We have a bread board that he and I made from it.  But mostly it just sat there.  In the end, the moving costs for that pile of wood far exceeded the value of the lumber. 
  I learned from my father, and I also learned from Data:  'These are just things.' [Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 2]  And so I pass them on, not within the family, but to someone who can make use of them.  After all, that's what a tool should be -- useful.
 

Change in weather

So, yes, it snowed today, and yes, it's as bad as it looks.  I don't know what the final count is but it looks to be about 15 cm/6 in.  All the schools in the area were closed and 'most everything else was cancelled.
  It made me think about Guyana.  It's likely the first thing anyone thinks about when comparing this place and that - the weather.  No snow there, but floods; no cold weather, but high humidity.
  Vivian and I have lived in many places, and I moved around a bit before we were married.  Philadelphia in the summer is actually hotter than Guyana, and just a humid.  The fact is that humans live all over this planet, and they generally survive the experience.
  Wherever we have lived, we have always thought of the people first, and the weather second.  Guyana will be no different.  We only think about the weather now, because we don't know the people.  But that will change, I'm sure, upon our arrival.  We will enjoy meeting the people; we can get used to any weather.