During the Season of Easter, we are reminded again and again of the joy surrounding the witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection.  Before that joy is fully realized, they are stuck in their experience of grief.  The witnesses don’t always hear Jesus’ voice as his voice.  They don’t recognize Jesus but think him an apparition.  When they move through their grief into believing and seeing through their hearts and eyes – they are filled with unending joy.  The energy of their joy pours through the pages of scripture and becomes our own.

The Easter story I one of radical love that we are called to proclaim as witnesses today.  We each bear our grief, our struggles and our own mistakes.  We are called to examine our hearts and lives and move into a place of forgiveness.  We are called to turn toward the risen Christ with open arms and open spirits, welcoming the good news!  Christ is alive.  Christ is risen.

Reading for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:12-19     Psalms 4
1 John 3:1-7      Luke 24:36-48

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Belarus, Moldova, Russia & Ukraine

Prayer for the week
Ever-present God, we desire your transformative spirit among us.  Yet, we confess that many times we only stare, mouths gaping and knees trembling, at the sight of your miraculous presence.  Forgive us for when we stand in disbelief.  Fill us with Christ’s peace, Peter’s conviction, and the healed one’s joy so we may be your witnesses.  Amen.

Reading for the 2nd Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:32-35     Psalms 133
1 John 1:1-2:2  John 20:19-31

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Bulgaria, Hungary & Romania

Prayer for the week
Christ, who bears the marks of love, grant us peace and open our eyes to see you among us.  Blessed One, whether we see or don’t see, may we believe, and through that belief grant us life in your holy and mighty name.  Amen.

The saying, “we have all that we need to change the church and to change the world,” can be heard as a challenging statement: we are not where we should be.  But it can also be taken as a hopeful statement: we are not where we could be.  Either way, we can agree-all of the resources needed to transform ourselves and our churches are around us, but there are many things (fear, oppression, and so on) that limit our access to these resources.  Whether the obstacles are personal or systemic, dealing with them is gut-wrenchingly hard work that often leaves us in situations where we feel exposed, uncertain, an ill-equipped.  Yet, it is part of what it means to be disciples and so despite these mountains in our way we persevere; because God has indeed “created us for good works”  and because we have what we need to continue what Jesus started long before the first Palm Sunday protest.

Reading for Palm/Passion Sunday
Liturgy of Palms
Mark 11:1-11  Psalms 118:1-2, 19-29
Liturgy of Passion
Isaiah 50:4-9     Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11        Mark 14:1-15:47

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of  Czech Republic, Poland & Slovakia

Prayer for the week
When we celebrate, and when we protest, we are thankful that you are present with us, O God.  Help us discern when to challenge authority, and when to use power for good.  May we continue to follow in the way of Jesus.  Amen.

Taylor Branch, a civil rights historian once expressed his surprise that Montgomery, Alabama, became the nucleus of the civil rights movement: “There weren’t many real activists in Montgomery at the time.”  Branch did not think that the people in Montgomery had “a heart” for activism.  Everything changed the Monday morning that the bus boycott started (initiated by Rosa Park’s arrest); suddenly, for the Blank Folk of Montgomery their time to act had come-and despite the personal risk, they acted together as a united community.  Montgomery might not have been filled with the type of people we often label as activists; still, it was filled with people who were ready to do what was right.  This is the type of community we hope to create: a community with a heart for Christ’s mission, ready to act together for Christ’s sake in the world.

Reading for the 5th Sunday of Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34                                         Psalms 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10                                              John 12:20-33

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania

Prayer for the week
God of love, fill our hearts with your spirit so we may draw closer to you.  May we follow in Jesus’ way and be inspired by our encounters with Christ to share your love in the world.  Amen.

Working on something that we are not naturally good at opens us to vulnerability and suffering.  We need to rely on the help and wisdom of others, and we risk failure and humiliation.  It’s scary, it’s uncomfortable, it’s foreign, but it is worth it!  The people of Israel were not good at living in the wilderness; they were no longer nomadic people living like their ancestors Sarah and Abraham.  It is unfair to expect them to excel in such extreme situations.  Their vulnerability and suffering are relatable.  What can we learn from the hardships of the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness?  What have we learnt from our wilderness times?

In preparation for worship:  If God put the snakes in the wilderness, would it not be easier to remove the snakes, instead of providing a complicated antidote?  Many who gather to worship this week are likely wondering similar things.  It is a common question: if God created it, why can’t God take it away?  The cancer diagnosis, the tractor accident, the oil leak, the poisonous drug, why doesn’t God simple remove it?

How we answer these questions depends on our understanding of God’s providence and how we believe God is in our world.  A God who punishes people is counter to our beliefs of a loving and benevolent God.  What if the poisonous serpents in the wilderness are not a punishment?  What if the serpents are a metaphor, symbolic of harmful thoughts, practices and attitudes that can kill?  God providing an antidote, could be understood as a loving way of giving help and maybe buying some time until the people figure out how to eradicate the root problem, the poisonous serpents.

Reading for the 4th Sunday of Lent
Numbers 21:4-9                                              Psalms 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10                                            John 3:14-21

Ecumenical Prayer Calendar
The peoples of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway & Sweden

Prayer for the week
Ever-present God, we choose to give thanks for your presence in our lives.  You shower us with extravagant love and invite us to respond with our love, thanks, and praise.  Your love and grace inspire us to act justly in the world.  Help us to choose to trust in your protection and your love for us all.  Amen.

When looking back at the great injustices of our time, we might wonder, did the people involved realize that they were on the “wrong side” of history? More importantly we might wonder, are we on the right side now?  Hindsight makes for a unfair critique of the past.  It’s hard without hindsight to distinguish between the law and rule of the “powers that be”  and the law and rule of the power of love (aka discipleship). The path of the “powers that be” is ridiculously alluring and often the path of least resistance.  The path of Jesus can be awesomely hard (with not a lot of instant gratification).  Maybe that is why Jesus is forever sending disciples ahead to “prepare the way”! So why show up?  Why take the path of great resistance?