Urgent Faith?
Has the past year with the pandemic and all the hardships made us more urgent about the Christian Faith? I ask you the question. I am not overwhelmed with indications in the culture that it has…
When I say urgent, I don’t necessarily mean panicked. But I am implying a resolute sense of devotion, an indication of the right priorities, and signs of renewed dedication. When it has been understandably difficult, and arguably dangerous, to gather, a sense of urgency might be indicated by expressions of hunger and longing for being able to gather and commune with brothers and sisters in Christ in partaking of His body and blood given with bread and wine.
In a year that we have oft heard the distinguishing between essential and non-essential workers and activities, church activities if mentioned at all, are seldom mentioned in the essential category. When one of the greatest mantras has been we need to “trust” or “follow” the science, the spiritually tuned ear finds it deafeningly silent any mention of the transcendent to see us through. Science, by the way, is certainly a valuable tool and we would be remiss without it. But is it a worthy guide above all else?
Unquestionably, a healthy amount of fear lends support to caution and the exercise of prudence. But unlike loftier rhetoric of the past, when have we been warned today that the greatest thing to fear is fear itself? Where has the realization that a meaningful life is one of taking risks, especially for the sake of the Gospel and out of love for our neighbor? Where has the demonstration been that this world is not our home, and that death in this age is complete with every generation?
In my plug for the upcoming Easter Celebration, I remind you of the Apostle Paul’s take: If Christ has not been raised from the dead; we are of all people the most to be pitied. But if He has…
Since You Asked…
How are we to understand the Easter Feast?
“Easter is to be understood as the crown of the whole year, the queen of feasts, and as such it lasts not for a day, not for a week, but for a week of weeks – a week not made up of seven days but of seven weeks. So the Sundays of this season are called the Sundays of Easter. It is one extended feast. … The Gospels for the Sundays of Easter present the themes of resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit as aspects or stages of the Easter Mystery…” (from the Manual on the Liturgy a companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship, publ. by Augsburg)