Alleluia!  Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!   Tonight, perhaps more than any other night, we are elemental in the way we come close to God. Our night is marked in darkness and light, in silence and song.  We kindle fire and tell stories in the dark.  We splash water.  We ring bells and shout Alleluia!  We meet again at…

    Good Friday is the winter solstice of the liturgical year.[1]  Last night after processed the body of Christ to the garden, we stripped the altar and emptied out the aumbry – and extinguished the candle that burns 27/4 all year except on these few days. The light disappeared, just as the Light of God appeared to be snuffed.[2] All these…

Maundy Thursday is a day of transition.  Momentum shifts on this day.  The light darkens.  Shadows lengthen.  General ideas about “the Lenten journey” become specific items[1]: a towel, a bowl, oil, a cup, some bread. This is the night we remember Jesus’ last night.  Jesus gathered intimately with his friends for a meal.  He gave them a mandate to love, and showed…

Hosanna!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!   We’re doing Palm/Passion Sunday a bit different this year, as I wrote about in The Shell a few weeks ago.  Instead of a brief Palm celebration outside and turning immediately to the Passion inside, we’re holding on to the triumphant entry longer and moving into the passion through…

I will put my law within in, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.   There are many stories about covenant in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Think of Noah and the rainbow, and Moses and the stone tablets.  In today’s beautiful reading, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of a covenant written…

Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Whenever I read today’s passage from any of the Gospels, I think about the classic movie Cool Hand Luke.  How many of you know this 1967 gem which starred Paul Newman?  If you haven’t seen it, I highly…