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Thursday, March 27, 2008
What a Difference One Day Made
Psalm 118:1-2,14-24; Matthew 28:1-10
Easter is the best day of the year. The best day of all days ever. So says our morning prayer on that festival day of Surprising Great Good News.
In a sense, though, every Sunday -- in the Christian tradition -- is a kind of Little Easter.
We worship on the first day of the week instead of the seventh exactly because it's the day the resurrection happened. The day of rich ripe promise that life, not death, is God's last word about the nature of things. "Jesus lives and so shall I," says the Reformation chorale. If you really believe that, you have to celebrate it as often as possible. At the top of each week ain't bad at all.
Actually, every waking morning -- whether Sunday, Tuesday, whatever -- is a Little Easter.
To all appearances, except the breathing part, your sleeping body lies in death until your eyes open up again. Your brain, unless it's dreaming coded messages from God or simply flushing away a day's worth of scattered impressions, might as well be dead. And then -- shazam, voila, and hallelujah -- comes the dawn and there you are: alive again. For better or for worse.
And even on the worst of days, we never quite quit believing it's really for the better.
The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer starts each new day by quoting 1 Peter 1:3 -- "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Then it teaches us to pray -- "Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." That's resurrection life, one day at a time.
So... Here we are 4 days after the Biggest Sunday of the Year. And I'm just getting around to posting the sermon MP3. But, know what?
Happy Little Easter!
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:36 PM
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