Easter archive at Ray Fowler .org

Archive for the 'Easter' Category

Easter Sunday Poems by George Herbert

Published at March 23, 2008 in Easter and Poems. 1 Comment

Hello and welcome to RayFowler.org. If you are new here, be sure to subscribe by email or feed reader so that you don't miss any future posts. You can also check out the Top Posts page to get a feel for the site. Thanks for visiting!

Here are three Easter poems by George Herbert, one of my favorite poets. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poems if you take them slowly and read them through several times, out loud if possible.

“EASTER (1)” - by George Herbert

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined¹ thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name,
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort both heart and lute, and twist² a song
Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied³
And multiplied;
Oh let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.

_____
1. calcined. Burnt to ashes.
2. twist. Weave together, as in polyphonic music.
3. vied. Increased in number by addition or repetition.

“EASTER (2)” - by George Herbert (This is the speaker’s response to his own call in Easter 1.)

I got me flowers to straw thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.

The Sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th’ East perfume;
If they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.

“EASTER WINGS” - by George Herbert (Notice how the shape of the words in each stanza resembles a pair of wings.)

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poor:
With thee
Oh let me rise¹
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did begin:
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sin,
That I became
Most thin.
With thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day thy victory:
For, if I imp² my wing on thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

_____
1. rise. See Isaiah 40:31 and Malachi 4:2.
2. imp. To imp, in falconry, is to engraft feathers in a damaged wing, so as to improve or restore damaged powers of flight.

Source (for poems and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for more Easter posts.
Click here for an Easter poem by Ray Fowler.

Holy Saturday Poem by George Herbert

Published at March 22, 2008 in Easter and Poems. 1 Comment

Here is a poem for Holy Saturday by George Herbert, one of my favorite poets. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poem if you take it slowly and read it through several times, out loud if possible.

“SEPULCHER” - by George Herbert

Oh blessed body! Whither art thou thrown?
No lodging for thee, but a cold hard stone?
So many hearts on earth, and yet not one
Receive thee?

Sure there is room within our hearts good store;
For they can lodge transgressions by the score:
Thousands of toys¹ dwell there, yet out of door
They leave thee.

But that which shows them large, shows them unfit.
Whatever sin did this pure rock commit,
Which holds thee now? Who hath indicted it
Of murder?

Where our hard hearts have took up stones² to brain thee,
And missing this, most falsely did arraign thee;
Only these stones in quiet entertain thee,
And order.

And as of old, the law by heav’nly art,
Was writ in stone; so thou, which also art
The letter of the word,³ find’st no fit heart
To hold thee.

Yet do we still persist as we began,
And so should perish, but that nothing can,
Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man
Withhold thee.

_____
1. toys. Trifling things.
2. took up stones. See John 10:13.
3. The letter of the word. See Hebrews 8:10 and Proverbs 3:3, 7:3.

Source (for poem and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for more Easter posts.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

Good Friday Poems by George Herbert

Published at March 21, 2008 in Cross, Easter and Poems. 3 Comments

Here are two Good Friday poems by George Herbert, one of my favorite poets. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poems if you take them slowly and read them through several times, out loud if possible.

“GOOD FRIDAY” - by George Herbert (Notice how each stanza roughly resembles the shape of a cross.)

Oh my chief good,
How shall I measure out thy blood?
How shall I count what thee befell,
And each grief tell?

Shall I thy woes
Number according to thy foes?
Or, since one star show’d thy first breath,
Shall all thy death?

Or shall each leaf,
Which falls in Autumn, score¹ a grief?
Or cannot leaves, but fruit, be sign,
Of the true vine?

Then let each hour
Of my whole life one grief devour;
That thy distress through all may run,
And be my sun.

Or rather let
My several sins their sorrows get;
That, as each beast his cure doth know,
Each sin may so.

_____
1. score. Mark, as in counting.

“THE PASSION” - by George Herbert

Since blood is fittest, Lord, to write
Thy sorrows in, and bloody fight;
My heart hath store; write there, where in
One box doth lie both ink and sin:

That when sin spies so many foes,
Thy whips, thy nails, thy wounds, thy woes,
All come to lodge there, sin may say,
No room for me, and fly away.

Sin being gone, oh fill the place,
And keep possession with thy grace;
Lest sin take courage and return,
And all the writings blot or burn.

Source (for poems and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for a Good Friday Poem by Christina Rossetti.
Click here for more posts relating to the Cross.
Click here for more Easter posts.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

A Donkey Sermon for Palm Sunday

Published at March 10, 2008 in Easter. 2 Comments

Palm Sunday is next week. Last year for Palm Sunday I preached a narrative sermon re-telling the events of Palm Sunday from the donkey’s perspective. Click here to read the sermon: Straight from the Donkey’s Mouth.

How Much Did Jesus Know about the Cross?

Published at February 22, 2008 in Cross, Easter and Christ. 0 Comments

This question came up in church last week:

How much did Jesus know about the cross? How much did he know about what would happen when he arrived in Jerusalem? Did he know about all the events that would take place between Palm Sunday and Easter, or did he just have a general knowledge that he was going to suffer and die?

The person asking the question felt that Jesus’ determination to walk the road to Jerusalem would mean that much more to us if we could say with confidence that Jesus knew everything that lay ahead for him.

It is an interesting question, and theologically delves into the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became fully man without ceasing at the same time to be fully God. Jesus possessed both a divine nature and human nature in one person. So how does one reconcile Jesus’ omniscience as God with his growth and development as a human being?

The Scriptures indicate that Jesus retained his divine omniscience even in the incarnation but chose not to exercise it at certain times. So where did Jesus get his knowledge of things to come? Some of his knowledge of future events may have come through his personal study of Scripture, some by direct revelation from the Father in prayer, and some by his divine attribute of omniscience. We find examples of all three of these avenues in Jesus’ life, and it may be that various combinations of the three contributed to his knowledge at different times.

As Jesus made his way toward Jerusalem and the cross, the Scriptures tell us that he knew many details of what lay ahead for him. He knew that he must suffer and be rejected, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (Luke 9:22) He knew that he would be betrayed. (Luke 9:44) He knew that he would be handed over to the Gentiles and that they would mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. (Luke 18:31)

Many of these things Jesus could have known simply from his study of the Scriptures. But Jesus also knew other details that would have required a different type of knowledge. For example, Jesus knew from the beginning who would not believe and who would betray him. (John 6:64) Jesus knew in advance that Peter would deny him three times. (John 13:38) And when the soldiers came for him in the garden, John tells us that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. (John 18:4) He could only have known such things by direct revelation from the Father or by drawing on his omniscience as the Son of God.

So, how much did Jesus know about the cross as he walked toward Jerusalem? Did he know every single detail that would take place that week? Possibly, but we cannot say for sure. It is all part of the mystery of the incarnation.

But if we step back further in time, before his incarnation, Jesus most certainly knew every detail that would take place leading up to the cross. Drawing fully from his omniscience in his pre-incarnate state, Jesus knew everything that he would suffer in Jerusalem. Yet he still chose to come and die for lost sinners like you and me. He is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) How much did Jesus know about the cross? We may rest assured that when Jesus left the glories of heaven to come to earth, he did so with full knowledge of the cross and all that it would entail.

The Earliest Easter in Your Lifetime

Published at January 16, 2008 in Easter. 3 Comments

Easter comes early this year, which means many churches are also preparing for an early Lenten season. (Ash Wednesday is on February 6, 2008, only several weeks away!) Unless you were around for Easter back in 1913, this will be the earliest Easter in your lifetime. This year Easter falls on March 23, which is the second earliest date possible. The last time Easter fell this early in the year was March 23, 1913; the next time won’t be until March 23, 2160.

Easter can take place as early as March 22 but no later than April 25. The last time Easter fell on the earliest possible date was March 22, 1818. That will not happen again until March 22, 2285. The most common date for Easter to occur is April 19. Here is a list of the nearest past and future occurrences of Easter falling on either March 22/23 or April 24/25:

March 22, 1818
April 24, 1859
March 23, 1913
April 25, 1943
March 23, 2008
April 24, 2011
April 25, 2038
March 22, 2285

Calculating the date of Easter is no simple task. The cycle of Easter dates does not repeat until after exactly 5,700,000 years! For more information on how the date of Easter is determined, see the brief article: Determining the Dates for Easter and Passover.

Related posts:

Why Are Easter and Passover a Month Apart This Year?

Published at January 15, 2008 in Easter. 0 Comments

Have you ever wondered why Easter and Passover do not always fall together on the calendar? Some years they happen in the same week, but then other years they are a whole month apart. For example, this year Easter is on March 23, 2008, but the Passover does not begin until April 20, 2008.

It all has to do with solar years, lunar months and the Jewish leap year! You can read all about it in the following article: Determining the Dates for Easter and Passover.

Related posts:

Letter to James on his Thirteenth Birthday

Published at May 2, 2007 in Death, Mothers, Easter, Faith and Family. 0 Comments

Elle, at A Complete Thought, has written two very moving posts about her firstborn son, James, who died at age 2 1/2 after two years of illness and extended hospital stays. James was born on April 3, Easter Sunday, 1994.

The first post is a letter written to her son this year on what would have been his thirteenth birthday. In the second post, written on Easter of this year, Elle shares openly about her own struggle with faith following James’ death, along with the added difficulty of learning how to celebrate Easter once again, which now represented not only the resurrection of her Lord but also the birthday of the son she had lost.

I pray that these two posts will minister to others who have lost children as well as deepen the hearts and understanding of those who have never experienced such a loss. Thank you, Elle, for sharing personally and from your heart. May God continue to comfort you and your husband with his strong hand of love.

News and Notes - 4/13/2007

Published at April 13, 2007 in Crime, Easter, News and Notes and Bible. 0 Comments

Bible Belt. This story gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Bible thumper.” A Minnesota jail guard is on leave after striking a prisoner with the prisoner’s own Bible.

PC Bunny. A Rhode Island public school thought the Easter Bunny was too Christian, so they changed his name to the more politically correct “Peter Rabbit.” But wait, that won’t work either. Peter was one of Jesus’ twelve apostles. Perhaps they should just call it the PC Bunny.

Getting a leg up on crime. A man with a prosthetic leg was apprehended by police after his leg fell off during the getaway. He and his partner had just hoisted a 1,500-pound ATM machine loaded with cash into their pickup truck when police gave chase.

Church Holiday Two-Timers

Published at April 11, 2007 in Christmas, Easter, Fun and Church. 0 Comments

You know the type. In fact, maybe you are one yourself! I am talking about people who attend church only twice a year, usually at Christmas and Easter.

There is a whole slew of jokes about them, including the one about the person who complained to the pastor on the way out of the service: “Every time I come to church, you are always talking about the same thing. It’s always either the birth of Jesus or his resurrection!”

I was talking with a pastor friend this week who shared with me that one person on his way out of church this past Easter Sunday greeted him with a hearty: “Merry Christmas!” Whoops, wrong holiday.

And then you’ve got to love the honesty of the couple who told my wife on the way out after our Easter service, “See you next year!”

You know, sometimes you just have to laugh.

News and Notes - 4/10/2007

Published at April 10, 2007 in Easter and News and Notes. 0 Comments

The History of Easter. You can view the history of Easter in under four minutes on this video from the History Channel. So who really came up with the Easter egg first?

Amazon.swim Martin Strel, a 52-year-old man from Slovenia, completed a 9-week-long, 3,272 mile swim down the Amazon River, braving piranhas, toothpick fish and bull sharks along the way. Strel’s previous long-distance swims include a 1,866-mile swim along the Danube, a 2,360-mile swim down the Mississippi and a 2,487-mile swim along the Yangtze river in China.

Newsweek: Is God Real?

Published at April 9, 2007 in Easter, Religion, God and Faith. 2 Comments

Newsweek’s April 9, 2007 religion feature by Jon Meacham is entitled: Is God Real? The article is a follow-up to Newsweek’s recent religious poll and the discussion/debate Newsweek hosted between Christian pastor Rick Warren and atheistic author Sam Harrison on the same question.

Meacham describes the two debate participants as follows:

Warren believes in the God of Abraham as revealed by Scripture, tradition and reason; Jesus is Warren’s personal savior and was, Warren argues, who he said he was: the Son of God. Harris, naturally, takes a different view. “I no more believe in the Biblical God than I believe in Zeus, Isis, Thor and the thousands of other dead gods that lie buried in the mass grave we call ‘mythology’,” Harris says. “I doubt them all equally and for the same reason: lack of evidence.”

Newsweek religion contributor Rabbi Marc Gellman adds his own thoughts to the subject in his April 5, 2007 article, “Problems and Mysteries.” I got a chuckle out of Gellman’s closing words. After commenting on his own Jewish faith, Rick Warren’s Christian faith, and Sam Harris’ lack of faith, Gellman signs off with these three greetings:

Happy Passover to my Jewish readers.
Happy Easter to Rick and all my Christian friends.
And to Sam Harris, happy springtime.

Is God real? This is the most basic question of faith, and one that must be addressed in order to come to God. Hebrews 11:6 says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Without God there is no meaning to life. Without Christ there is no hope of resurrection and life beyond the grave. There is just “happy springtime.” Springtime is nice, but it cannot compare with Easter. May you know the reality of God and his love for you in Christ this Easter season.

Ray Fowler .org