Feel like dying

“You brought me up, O LORD, from the dead; you restored my life as I was going down to the grave.”

We’ve all felt like it was the end at times. Maybe it’s the stomach flu that has you spending the night on the bathroom floor begging God to let you die. We lose a friend or a lover and it feels like the world comes crashing down on our heads. Or we lose all our friends because we did something wrong or are perceived to have done something wrong.

There’s more than one kind of death. I also believe there’s more than one way for God to restore our lives. Think about the times you ‘almost died’ and how you came out of it. Do you see God’s hand in it? Were you looking?

Clear away the Old Stuff First

Sing to the LORD a new song; *
sing to the LORD, all the whole earth.

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
let the sea thunder and all that is in it; *
let the field be joyful and all that is therein.

Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy
before the LORD when he comes, *
when he comes to judge the earth.

I don't think it's a mistake that the word "Lent" was derived from means Spring. We spend the last days of this particularly miserable winter preparing for the world to come back to life. If we're lucky, we may even have flowers from our gardens for the cross on Easter morning...but not yet. First we have to prepare for it. We have to wait and watch for Spring and resurrection to get here to meet us. We have to believe it will come. It's not easy. The grass is dry and brown, the roses are withered on the bush (no, I didn't dead-head that last bunch) and there's a cascade of dead parsley right there. Right there just staring us in the face.

Lent is a good time to clean up the flower beds of our lives. Under that cascade of dead parsley there's new growth. It's waiting for me right there in the front yard, but I need to clear away the old stuff first. That's what Lent is good for. Clear away the old stuff first---new life is waiting underneath.

~Leslie Terrell

Alleluia Sunday

Has anyone else noticed that the Sunday before Ash Wednesday always ends up being the liturgical equivalent of Fat Tuesday?

We don't get to act happy in church for the next eight weeks, so let's just get it all out of our systems. You won't find it on any official calender, but I've never even visited an Episcopal church that didn't call that weekend's service "Alleluia Sunday" and pull out all the holy stops for the event. I understand. I'll admit part of the reason I love being in the choir is that we get to "cheat" and rehearse Easter hymns in the "dead of Lent".

When I was a kid I always thought Easter was a strange holiday. I got a new dress and a chocolate bunny and didn't really understand why. I suppose if I had been going to church at that time I would have understood better. I think someone probably told me we were celebrating the resurrection, but I don't remember that. I just remember chocolate bunnies that were supposedly brought into the house by some burglarizing rabbit. It didn't mean a whole lot to me then.

Then came my first Lent. I was still waiting to be baptized. The priest had finally figured out I hadn't been and had asked me to abstain from communion (long story) and I was taking Inquirer's classes. I decided to abstain from caffeine for my Lenten fast. Little did I know this left out soda, chocolate (chocolate!), and most tea. Had I been a coffee drinker at the time, I never would have made it. No brownies, no fundraiser candy bars, no Dr. Pepper (oh horrors!), and no chocolate donuts. Are you getting the picture that CHOCOLATE was the main hardship in this? My 'friends' found out about and being in band, waved caramel bars under my nose every day at lunch just to test my resolve.

Church was suddenly penitential and dreary. Our priest, who at times could be said to have a real flair for drama, managed to find some rather large railroad spikes and a ceramic rooster to put at the foot of the alter---along with some fake doubloons--- just to see if we got the symbolism. Easter Vigil came and with it baptism---I had only one question---was Lent really over? It was. I immediately plowed into the the brownies waiting in the narthex.

I think my sixteen year old brain kind of missed the point. I have never again surrendered caffeine for Lent. I don't think I ever will. I also finally understood, really understood, what the deal was with the new dresses and the chocolate bunnies. I still haven't figured out why the bunny is supposed to burglarize our homes to get the chocolate in the house but that's okay. It was new life after death. Real life after death.

I hope you all had a good alleluia Sunday. I also hope we never get that out of our systems.