Online Services

You've got Michael J Fox's Delorean. Where in time do you travel? I'm off to this back road toward Emmaus in Luke 24:13-32, where the resurrected messiah is pulling a practical joke - for a great reason - on a sad couple.

After you watch the video, come back for the next comment I forgot to mention: there are a couple of reasons I suspect Luke leaves the identity of Cleopas' companion a secret, but one of them is this. He want us, as readers, to put OURSELVES on the road listening to Jesus open up the Bible to us about his identity and work.

Music today: George Frederick Handel, 'Hallelujah Chorus'. Handel was almost bankrupt when he received the commission to write this piece as a fundraiser for a debtor's prison in Dublin. The music poured out of him for Messiah; he wrote the whole thing in only a little over 3 weeks, And yes, he says he had a powerful encounter with God in writing the 'Hallelujah Chorus.'
https://youtu.be/J4JIHvmoN0E

Page France, 'Jesus.' This uses some slightly shocking imagery, but there's a sense of joy, amazement and yes, humor that I think is appropriate, and I think Christ himself would welcome over the delight that death itself has been conquered. Glory!
https://youtu.be/CLtFGvMddXA

Page France, 'Jesus.' This uses some slightly shocking imagery, but there's a sense of joy, amazement and yes, humor that I think is appropriate, and I think Christ himself would welcome over the delight that death itself has been conquered. Glory!
https://youtu.be/CLtFGvMddXA

Saturday of Holy Week. Jesus is in the tomb. Not a word about this day in Scripture. Yet. . . A few minutes with 2 Peter 3:8-9, 11-12. God is typically up to quite a bit, even when we think he's forgotten all about us.

Today's Music: Caedmon's Call, 'Valleys Fill First'.

One of the very few songs I've ever heard that reference holy Saturday, Aaron Tate and Ed Cash recognize that when we're waiting for an answer that never seems to come, we're laid low - we're humiliated. There's a great book of Puritan prayers called 'THE VALLEY OF VISION.' The idea is, when we're completely exhausted of our strength, hope, or resources, we're far more likely to catch the vision of God's strength and sufficiency. If you're in that place, (and I think many of us are in this pandemic), let this day remind you that God's ways are different from our ways - they're better! (Isaiah 55:8-13)

https://youtu.be/DJyCYUtI0bA

'By his wounds we are healed.' (Isaiah 53:5) Jesus taking on our sin is the glorious, mysterious grace of God on Good Friday. Artists and composers have sought to portray the significance and power of this for centuries.

Today's art: The Isenheim Alterpiece, crucifixion panel https://www.google.com/search?q=Isenheim+altarpiece+crucifixion&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0yNmKst7oAhXtlXIEHd56BlAQ_AUoAXoECB0QAw&biw=1353&bih=742&fbclid=IwAR1DkWEaOUi68FyBzNg2xlVeBTeAoMRko75g_1kJuGjQv_jLUuVhpG9ANuc#imgrc=07JI4GnHYzSQoM

Rembrandt, The Raising of the Cross (1633) http://samluce.com/2019/04/rembrandt-and-the-cross-of-christ/?fbclid=IwAR2_4nlVQBcxroSjrJiKpTqkDcUpbO6wHMCSFD-eWjYNkDFxE7QUC5pPoKE

Today's music: John Davis, 'The Kind of Heart' https://youtu.be/toFMJIRtUW4

Jars of Clay, 'Liquid' https://youtu.be/YxWA_EnoIA8

Knut Nystedt: 'O Crux' https://youtu.be/Z-GhX2jG_Q4

Latin lyrics and translation: O Crux, splendidior cunctis astris, mundo celebris, hominibus multum amabilis, sanctior universis; que sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi: dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera salva presentem catervam, in tuis hodie laudibus congregatam.

O Cross, more radiant than all the stars, honoured throughout the world, beloved of the people, holier than all things, which alone was found worthy to bear the light of the world: blessed wood, blessed nails, blest the weight you bore: save your flock assembled here to praise you. (Venantius Fortunas 530-606 AD)

African-American spiritual: 'Were You There?', Kathleen Battle https://youtu.be/-Pt-boEUaAU