He Holds Everything Together
April 11, 2009
The amazing message in the video below comes from Louie Giglio, who heads up Passion Conferences for spiritual awakening on college campuses.
Colossians 1:15-20 (New International Version)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Good Friday from the Passion of the Christ
April 10, 2009
How Do I Know? I Am Scared by Father Ed Morgan
April 10, 2009
I have in my office a painting of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., “The Wall” as many have called it. When I visited D.C. several years ago, it took three days for me to build up my courage level enough to visit The Wall. As I stood before that black chunk of rock with thousands of names engraved on it, the immensity of it overwhelmed me and my knees buckled. Plain rock, polished and engraved—simplicity in itself. What made it personal were the names, names of men I served with. Names of friends who grew up together, played handball, sold newspapers at the church, plotted how to find and buy cherry bombs, shared lunches, planned parties and futures.
I visualized an image of standing at the graveside while taps played, an image of visiting parents to tell them their son is dead and unrecognizable due to the booby trap. I not only cried, I sobbed. I sat on the ground at the memorial, feeling stunned, shocked, and helpless, for them and for myself.
There is more to the story, but my purpose here is to share the immensity of the shock I feel when I stand before the cross on Good Friday, understanding in many ways there is nothing good about Good Friday. All is lost. Hope has vanished. Dreams and plans are gone! Gone by the law of the Romans and the leadership of the Jews.
Whatever hope we had felt is gone! Jesus died! Jesus did not feign it, faint, swoon, or fake out the Romans. He died! End of story!
As I stood at The Wall feeling the powerful emotions, I wailed at the loss. The Disciples were in the same grip of agony. Yes, Jesus had told them He would return, and intellectually they understood that something would happen somewhere down the road, too far away to be of any significance to them at the time of their grief.
They were so caught up in their mourning that they did not and could not understand the impact of the empty tomb on that early morning. It took time for them to begin to understand; it wasn’t until Jesus started to appear to them that things began to fall into place. Thomas simply voiced what others—some, not all—were afraid to say. When Jesus appeared, Thomas fell to his knees understanding, at last, that Jesus lives! I can’t help but think that tears of grief and joy were mixed in Thomas, for never again would he waver in his belief!
Death affects all of us, as it is something we all face individually. We experience many forms of death in our daily lives: cultural deaths, deaths of traditions, deaths to former ways of living, deaths to old thoughts, etc.
Because of the death of Jesus on the cross and His Resurrection three days later, never to die again, we can begin to hope. We can find the courage to die to the old sinful nature in order to live as the new creation that is birthed in Christ.
“That’s great, Father Ed,” you say. “But it all sounds like so much hyperbole, oratory, empty rhetoric. We’ve heard this all before.”
True, you have heard this before, but did you pay attention? Are you ready to listen now? Let me share with you a simple method of listening. Stop talking! You are not the only person to suffer. You don’t have a market on desperation. But if you want the answer that is not trite: Stop talking and listen. He will speak to your heart, with the Still Small Voice, and through His Holy Scriptures, if we can just take the time to be quiet before Him.
You are important, loved, and valued! You matter to God. God made you, regardless of what you think, and He loves you! If that is hard for you to accept, it’s because you are still TALKING! Your only hope in this world is God! A living and loving God. He who did what you cannot do. He opened His arms for you to come back to Him.
God of our fathers is not a God of the past. He is a God of the present. When He speaks, He speaks of the now, not the was or the will be. He answers Moses and the Prophets by saying “I am” the God of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Noah, Jacob, and all the others. He speaks in the now and acts in the now. God is not past. Jesus proved this when He rose from the dead. Only a living God can do that! Jesus never spoke of God as in the past or as a God of the sometime to come, maybe. Jesus talked about the God of now.
Do you realize that we have more documentation proving the existence of Jesus and His works than we do of Plato, Socrates, and some of the other so-called greats of history? We have over 500 witnesses to the Resurrected Christ documented in history. We have more proof of the validity of the Bible than we do of many early secular historical documents. The more science tries to prove the Bible wrong or inconsistent, the more science reveals itself to be inflated of self.
This Easter, Resurrection Day, celebrate a new birth in Christ. Take a small step of faith—when you consider all of the documentation, it’s not much of a step. We accept a lot of garbage today based on nothing but feeling, no witnesses or documentation. We don’t have to depend on mere feeling to accept Christ and His Gospel, His message.
What is keeping you from bending your knee and confessing with your tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord? He lives and dies no more, ever! What are you afraid of? Here is One who can create in you a new creation, One who can help you overcome the devils of the world, those things that keep you from having a life filled with joy and freedom. The Gospel message of Christ does not hinder, bind, or shackle you. It frees you to become what God has chosen for you from the time you were in the womb. Come and find out how God overcomes, lifts up, and breathes new life into the valley of dry bones that you and I drag around daily. Accept the risen Lord and agree to serve Him and not that which condemns, chains, tortures, binds, cripples, and keeps us from the promises of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
Come, taste and see the sweetness of the Lord. Come and have life and have it abundantly.
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast.
Join us Easter Sunday when we declare this together filled with the Spirit: He is risen! He is risen indeed! Amen!
The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53
April 9, 2009
Maundy Thursday
April 9, 2009
The Maundy Thursday service is one of the most powerful services of the entire year. The service includes a foot washing ceremony, following Jesus’ example in John 13; Holy Communion, following Jesus’ commandment on the night in which He was betrayed; and the stripping of the altar and removal of the Presence to the Altar of Repose. The Vigil at the Altar of Repose begins at the end of the Maundy Thursday service and continues until Easter morning.
Here are photos from last year’s Maundy Thursday service.
The Dirty Jobs
April 9, 2009
Beloved in Christ, this is a re-print from last year. It was so powerful I felt we needed to see it again this year, before our Maundy Thursday service. I pray it blesses you, as it blessed me.
C+
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Bible Reading: Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. — St. John 13:1-5
Bonus Reading: Philippians 2:4-7
This past week, I was honored by the Lord, along with Fr. Ed, to wash our parish leadership’s feet. The nave was silent, despite a full congregation, as the Holy Spirit moved powerfully and personally among us, when the clergy modeled the Lord, embracing the feet, while loving and serving each other in this ancient custom of the Church. As the water flowed, so did tears and love among us all. The Presence was palpable…hearts pounded to the message thundering in our spirits: Jesus gave us this example of love and service to one another, even if it means doing the dirty jobs.
Jesus underscored this truth when he stooped to wash their feet. Foot-washing was customary then because people wore sandals or walked barefoot on filthy roads. Usually a host’s servants did the dirty chore, but Jesus saved this for Himself, forgetting He was a king, instead, taking the form of a bondservant… (Philippians 2:7). Interestingly, the disciples did nothing about the dirty feet, not even for themselves. Was it beneath them? It wasn’t beneath Jesus. He placed their needs above his own—even as He approached His darkest hour. Any of us would be consumed with the prospect of the coming Crucifixion, if we were in His place. Not Jesus. He loved us to the end.
What’s this mean to us?
- Forget about it – The life of a servant requires a kind of forgetfulness, the ability to forget our own needs or status to tend to someone else’s. “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me” (Romans 15:2-3) Once we’ve done that, we can…
- Do what Jesus does – Take positive, unequivocal action, when you see a need. “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”(John 13:14) Get busy among God’s people—don’t just wait for someone else to do it. Strip off the outer coverings of pride, busyness—self—and get down to the job the Lord has for us. Ignore the anxieties and trust them to the Father—here is the task at hand. But, to do that, we need the Holy Ghost, so…let’s pray this…
Contemplative Prayer: “Holy Spirit, please show us where we need to serve—and how our service would change marriages, workplaces, schools, parish, households and communities, if we began to serve each other before we considered our own needs.”
Think about it: “…all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble — 1 Peter 5:5
All love in the Beloved,
Chip+
Way of the Cross
April 8, 2009
The True Passion of Christ
April 7, 2009
From the Last Supper to Easter
April 6, 2009
Palm Sunday
April 5, 2009
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we remember on Palm Sunday, is told in Matthew 21:1-11:
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Our Palm Sunday service begins in the Prayer Garden with the blessing and distribution of the palms, then the congregation processes into the sanctuary for the Holy Communion service.
Here are photos from Palm Sunday 2008.
