Just Another Monday, But…

Greetings,

            The week after Easter is, especially for people very involved in the functioning of a congregation, a down time.  The big event of the year is over.  And no matter how hard the pastor works on her/his sermon for next week, the Sunday after Easter is referred to as a “low Sunday.”  Low attendance, low energy on the part of those who do come, and a general sense of “let down,” even when everyone feels good about how Lent and Easter Sunday went, pervades the churches.  Yet God is not on a low.  God is not letting down.  God is, if anything, “ramping it up.”  The cycle of the Church’s liturgical year reflects this, as the excitement of resurrection messages continues and builds to Ascension and then the great day of Pentecost: the Risen Lord is not only with us, the Holy Spirit has not only been breathed on each disciple of Jesus, but now the power of the Spirit is poured out on the disciples collectively and the Church is born.  Today individuals are invited to accept Jesus as their personal Risen Lord and receive His Holy Spirit to give them new birth and then to become part of His Body, the Church and be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s Love and Power in order to be the Body of Christ, to do the very work of Christ. 

Another of William Barclay’s prayers, this one based on the Church of England collect for the Monday of Easter Week, which is especially helpful for this week.

            Acts 10:34-43                                                                                                            Luke 24:13-35

O God, our Father, at Easter time we remember the great hope of eternal life which you have set before us, and we feel within our hearts the longings for goodness and for you.  Grant that nothing may hinder the hope of eternal life from coming true, and the desire for goodness and for you from being realized.

Grant, O God,

            That we may never lose the way through our self-will,

                        and so end up in the far countries of the soul;

            That we may never abandon the struggle,

                        but that we may endure to the end,

                        and so be saved;

            That we may never drop out of the race,

                        but that we may ever press forward

                        to the goal of our high calling;

            That we may never choose the cheap and passing things,

                        and let go the precious things that last for ever;

            That we may never take the easy way,

                        and so leave the right way;

            That we may never forget

                        that sweat is the price of all things,

                        and that without the cross,

                        there cannot be the crown.

So keep us and strengthen us by your grace that no disobedience and no weakness and no failure may stop us from entering into the blessedness which awaits those who are faithful in all the changes and the chances of life down even to the gates of death; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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Yours & His,

DED