Easter Forgiveness

Easter Forgiveness

Guest Writer: Eve Turek

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”—Luke 23:34a.

This photograph is from a previous Easter Sunday morning in lockdown. Before daybreak, I went to the ocean and found the empty Cross waiting at the access road. I felt led to go to it.

I’ve been thinking a lot all this week about what we Christians sometimes call “Holy Week.” There is so much to think about...where to pause and contemplate? Palm Sunday? Last Supper? Good Friday? Easter Vigil? Easter Morning?? This year, what caught my heart (and my breath) was a more profound implication I heard from the Cross: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”

What got to me was what I did not hear. I didn’t hear, Father, forgive them; they are really sorry. Father, forgive them; they know better now and will never do this again. Father, forgive them. They are repentant. Father, forgive them. They are so ashamed. Nope.

I heard something like this: Oh, Father, forgive them; they just don’t get it. Father, forgive them. They are so clueless (bless their hearts). Father, forgive them...not because they know, but because they don’t know. They really don’t know.

This is why, at rock bottom, when people ask me what I believe and what I stand for, I tell them I am in Love with God to my core, in Love with His Son Jesus, in Love with His Spirit because He loved us first. Because to whom much is forgiven, that one loves much. That’s why I focus on Love so much. I’m forgiven, and I was forgiven even before I knew better, did better, or wanted better. I was forgiven not because I was sorry, but because He is Love.

 And once I got hold of that truth, really got hold of it, then God had hold of my heart. And He’s never let go...thank God. Because He sustains this Love, I can walk in Love and forgiveness.

That’s what Easter means to me this year. He is Risen...not only 2,000+/- years ago, but risen in me. Coincidentally, the Easter season a past year once again coincided with the day I first made a conscious, deliberate commitment to God: April 1, 1973. Many years ago. I was 16 years old. I knew somehow, the decision meant everything would change. And it did.

I still had my times of walking away from the best I knew, but God was faithful even when I wasn’t. It was His faithfulness that brought me back to my best self. And that Love is why I am STILL His today.

Eve Turek

Resurrection Chapel National Cathedral Washington

Joanna. joannaseibert.com   https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Resurrection: It Takes a Second Look

Resurrection: It Takes a Second Look

“Seeing things as they actually are usually takes time. How else are we to explain the fact that no one—no one!—noticed the resurrected Jesus at first sight? Seeing the resurrection requires a second look, another glance. It takes a while for our eyes to adjust to the light of the resurrection, and then all of life looks radically different…Seeing God’s “new thing” is about seeing an old thing in a new way through a new lens. Such is the miracle of Gospel sight—to see what has always been there in such a radically new way that it becomes a new thing. This is always a work of grace, and we can only handle so much of it at once.”

—Kris Rocke and Joel Van Dyke in Geography of Grace, Doing Theology from Below from Daily Quote, InwardOutward/ Church of the Saviour, InwardOutward.org, April 30, 2019.

When friends ask what life must be like in the resurrection, I remind them that our only stories are of the resurrected Jesus. After the resurrection, the disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him. Mary Magdalene did not recognize him. The disciples meeting Jesus on the beach were not sure who he was. Jesus came and went through closed doors. The resurrected Jesus gave fishing tips, cooked meals, and ate dinner with his friends.

The Easter season is the perfect time to read and meditate on the resurrected Jesus’ appearances on Easter Day and the next forty days (Acts 1:3-8).

We may be most familiar with the four Easter Day appearances of Jesus (Mary Magdalene in John, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary in Matthew, two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke, disciples in the upper room when Thomas is absent in John). There are at least 12 appearances of the resurrected Jesus. This Easter Season is an excellent time to practice Ignatian meditative practices, putting ourselves into unfamiliar scenes.  

Jesus appeared to the disciples eight days after the resurrection (John 20:24-29), with Thomas present in the upper room. He appeared to seven disciples at the Sea of Galilee, asking Peter to feed His sheep (John 21). Jesus appeared on a hillside in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20), perhaps to over 500 people, as referenced by Paul (1 Corinthians 15:6). Jesus was later seen by his brother James (1 Corinthians 15:7). Jesus’ final appearance was the Great Commission, after the disciples returned to Jerusalem and were led out to Bethany at the Mount of Olives. (Luke 24:50-52, Acts 1:9-11). Then we know that Paul also encountered Jesus a few years later on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5, 1 Corinthians 15:8).1

The fact that people have difficulty recognizing Jesus tells us at least two things. First, the resurrection was so overwhelming that it was almost impossible initially to believe. Second, Jesus looked different in the resurrection. 

May we, in turn, learn from these stories what resurrection is in this life and the next.

1Msgr. Charles Pope, Blog, April 9, 2012, blog.adw.org

From his Native American heritage, Bishop Steven Charleston constantly reminds us that we have gotten through this pandemic and racial and social unrest with the help of those who love us in the resurrection in the next life. Through them, God prays, walks beside us, and nudges us to care for ourselves and others.

Caravaggio supper at Emmaus. National Gallery London

Joanna. joannaseibert.com   https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Easter Vigil

Easter Vigil 1

“Dear friends in Christ: On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer.” —Book of Common Prayer (Church Publishing, 1979), p. 285.

The Easter Vigil is one of the year’s most complicated and beautiful services for the church. The difficulty is that it is only once a year, so it is hard to remember all the tiny details from year to year. As a result, there is sometimes more chaos on this evening than the church would like. But this also adds to its beauty: light and creation emerging from chaos. The service starts with lighting the Paschal candle from a fire, usually outside the church. The large lighted candle then enters the church into complete darkness.

The deacon carries the Paschal candle in as they light the congregation’s candles while singing “The Light of Christ” three times in a slightly higher pitch. This is followed by the deacon chanting the beautiful Exsultet.

It is time for me to turn the Exsultet over to someone else. I have loved chanting the Exsultet for more than seventeen years. It has been a privilege. Our former other deacon at St. Mark’s, Susan, sang the Exsultet for three years. I loved hearing her practicing and beautifully chanting it from her heart. Michael, one of our priests, chanted it the following year, and our new rector, Barkley, will chant the Exsultet again this year.

Old Testament readings about God’s history with God’s people follow the Exsultet. Next come baptisms, crying babies, and curious toddlers escaping from their parents, all still in the dark. Finally, the cacophony of the incredible noise of bells of every size announces that Christ has risen indeed. The lights come on, and we see all the flowers of Easter surrounding the inside of the church. Then, we celebrate the first new Eucharist of the Easter season.

The service may be similar to what the spice-bearing women experienced when they came to the empty tomb on that early Easter morning. They saw one or two angels in dazzling white, telling them they were the first to know that Jesus had been raised from the dead!

This is the Easter message: Jesus defeated death and rose from the dead. We will rise from the dead. We have the promise that we will find resurrection in all the suffering and unnecessary deaths from this virus and the social and racial unrest in our world. This year, we especially pray for peace and resurrection for the people of Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and the people of our state still suffering from the recent tornadoes.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com   https://www.joannaseibert.com/