Celebrating Live on Easter 5!

Live at The Amen Jubilee!

1 we gather at the font
2 death has no more dominion
3 glory praise
4 listening, hearing, being
5 we give thee of thine own
6 broken and shed
7 we gather at the welcome table
8 thankful praise
9 jubilee, amen!

"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine;
you are but aliens and sojourners with me.
You shall grant redemption of the land of your possession."
Leviticus 25:23-24

Five Minute Friday :: Bury

• Five Minute Friday :: Bury Linkup


The pastor I was counseling with in an informal conversational manner said to me, "In Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, you can bury your need to prove yourself." It was that obvious. (I may have blogged how I love "the thrill of the chase," which is related.) But proving what? A batch of dough? What's death, burial, resurrection about anyway? Crucified, dead, and buried. That's Jesus. Or is it also each one of us?

After Mardi Gras and/or Shrove Tuesday, Lent 2026 began on Ash Wednesday—yesterday as I write this. Best guess is a few thousand devotional books have been written to guide one through the forty day long (minus Sundays that are "in but not of Lent.") Preaching and hearing about Jesus post-baptismal temptations in the wilderness on the first Sunday in Lent is a given for churches that follow the lectionary. You know about "giving up" a favorite food or activity, often adding on a service project or something (anything!) that will draw you closer to God and make you a better version of yourself.

But burying my need to prove myself? Burial follows death. Death follows? A serious illness or accident. Maybe old age (Louise was 105!) or simply God's time for you, even if you've been on earth only a few years or a couple of decades. Death follows life, but death of a human body isn't the only kind. I can bury my need to prove myself? That's one aspect of my human body and spirit, but it's not the sum of my life or years.

We're moving toward Good Friday, the day of Jesus' crucifixion and death. You may have heard Holy Saturday described as "the day nothing happens yet everything happens?" And then Easter.

On the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found the stone was rolled away. John 20:1.

I need help here. If something gets buried, it must have died. How can my "need to prove myself" die? Can you tell me? Standard answers include being less of a perfectionist (I'm a moderate one, far from extreme), praying to understand my history of compulsive behaviors, and my excitement whenever I do something well, because excellent performance(!) is a huge part of proving my worth to the world.

What needs to occur before resurrection can happen? Something or someone needs to die. Must be dead. "Dead and buried." That's Jesus, and it's each one of us. Unless something dies it can't be resurrected. What will the resurrected version of my "need to prove myself" look like? I hope to begin spiritual direction soon, probably during Lent. That sounds like a great question to explore.

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Five Minute Friday :: Transform

Do not be conformed to this world
but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind.
Romans 12:2
• Five Minute Friday :: Transform LInkup

This week I get to include one of my all time favorite scripture illustrations and talk about Romans again.

World here is "age," eon, era, epoch, and not cosmos.

What can we say, think, or do about the way the world and its leaders, the USA and its leaders, and so much about and around us seems to be changing, not transforming into vibrant new life from death, but from health to despair to death itself?

"Transformed" in this passage from Romans is metamorphosis. Our most familiar images in creation may be butterflies and dragonflies; I did a little research to confirm what I thought I already knew.

Butterflies symbolize transformation and rebirth. In the Christian tradition, butterflies are an icon of easter and resurrection.

Dragonflies originate in water and migrate to air as they grow and mature. Throughout their lifespan, dragonflies are at home in both water and air. In addition to change and transformation that's similar to butterfly lore, dragonflies are about adaptability. Maybe you know they can change direction amidst flight, and they can fly backwards? Somewhere I read dragonflies are about the realization of dreams.

The world and its leaders, the USA and its leaders, and too much about and around us is changing, not into life from death, but from health to despair to death. Maybe your neighborhood, your family, or your workplace has troubles that appear beyond hope. Maybe your own situation has imploded and you need to start from scratch?

Like a dragonfly we are birthed and re-birthed in water; we need to keep returning to the water for sustenance and renewal; we need to keep walking the talk still "wet behind the ears" with God's baptismal promises and claims on us, with God's baptismal charge to us to live transformed, to be agents of change and transformation to help create a world filled with justice, righteousness, newness, possibilities, and hope.

Via the apostle Paul, God calls us to "be transformed," to undergo a metamorphosis, but no human can achieve that radical change on their own, by themselves. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. It's about death and resurrection. Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Wherever we are, in whatever place we live, transformed people can be agents of change and transformation for this age, this epoch, this eon. Reborn into the cross and the empty tomb. Transformed by water and word. Amen? Amen!

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• Common milkweed in full flower this year in West Los Angeles
• Monarch Butterfly from West Los Angeles in a previous year (2018) with depleted milkweed plant. We've been planting milkweed at church for more than a half dozen years. What a ministry to creation!
• Dragonfly from hippo px

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Amen Jubilee :: Easter 5

Celebrating Live on Easter 5

1 we gather at the font
2 death has no more dominion
3 glory praise
4 listening, hearing, being
5 we give thee of thine own
6 broken and shed
7 we gather at the welcome table
8 thankful praise
9 jubilee, amen!


"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity,
for the land is mine;
you are but aliens and sojourners with me.
You shall grant redemption of all the land
of your possession."
Leviticus 25:23-24

celebrated live on Easter 5
at the Amen Jubilee
Urban Paradise, USA

Five Minute Friday :: Prove

Family of Breads with legal reuse rights from pxhere

• Five Minute Friday :: Prove Linkup

You need to prove your dough before you put it in the oven to bake it into bread. Yeast ferments a lump of dough – the future loaf! – so it rises and expands in size; we sometimes call that leavening. The rising proofs the dough so it comes out of the oven as lovely appealing bread that actually acts like bread—it tastes great and nourishes us well.

Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all of the dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed for us. Because of this, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of goodness and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8

The Apostle Paul uses an analogy he hopes his listeners and readers will understand when he says malice and evil become a kind of leaven because they tend to spread easily, similar to the way a small amount of yeast will prove an entire loaf. Moving away from Paul's warning, it takes very little yeast to make a whole loaf rise and shine; as we celebrate the festival of resurrection; that's where we're going today as Easter people. The Holy Spirit of Life that raised Jesus from the dead also raises us to new life. We become yeasty leaven for society and for the church. We rise and we shine!

God gives us Broken Bread and Unbroken Word, as a friend in previous city's website proclaims. The loaf has been proven, baked into bread, blessed, broken, and given to us. The Word is part of the proof of God with us, God among us, God for us.

God calls us to live as salt of the earth. Light of the world. Leaven of society. You've probably experienced how a tiny packet of yeast makes its way through the loaf and proves the whole entire thing? Our lives function the same way. And just as you can add more yeast if it looks like your bread isn't rising, why not take along a companion to help increase the leavening?

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April 2025 Highlights

• Urban Wilderness City Paradise Lectionary Project for April

• Wednesday 02 April • Another Trip to Torrance. I collaged the Stained Glass Windows I thought to capture this time. Have I mentioned google AI makes some really good collages, and has different options for us to make our own?

• Monday 07 April • Ground cover daisies. I don't know how many pics I've taken of ground cover at commercial sites. It's always fun and lively and even encouraging.

• Thursday 17 April • Florist Shop Easter Flowers in a collage by google AI.

• Saturday 19 April • My first time back in town in four years. Here are snacks from the annual Holy Saturday Easter workday; with covid and other disruptions I'm not sure when my last one was.

• Sunday 20 April • Easter Day, the Festival of Resurrection, Queen of Feasts. Lunch on the lawn included Persian Food for the end of Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

• Tuesday 22 April • doubles for Earth Day! I designed a poster for 2025 and my blog linked to six faves from previous years.

• Serendipitously, Earth Day also was the Fourth Tuesday Santa Monica Lunch Brunch I enjoyed for a second time. I collaged the lunch venue and some outside foliage.

Five Minute Friday :: Persuade

• Five Minute Friday :: Persuade Linkup

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Nothing whatsoever can separate us from God's love and God's presence that is such a present to us. What about peeled pineapples? Just this afternoon one of my housemates made dinner for us and we finished with some fresh pineapple he'd diced into bite-size pieces.

Despite snow in western Canada and in some upper midwestern US states, in spite of chilly days here in LA, evidence of spring abounds in the northern hemisphere. If spring is here – because spring has sprung – winter must have visited, too. Aside from most people having at least a mild seasonal mood pattern; aside from shorter days-longer nights causing a bit of sadness for many; aside from fewer flowers and decreased greenery, less fresh fruit and veggies during the cooler months; our memories grow even shorter than the days, and we forget the glories of new life.

But did you know? Bright, colorful, spring flowers with their promise of even more splendid summer months for those of us with an endless estival love affair form only a hint of the reality; we could call it a type or a foreshadowing of the real thing.

The church has been observing Lent since early March. During Lent we follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to his trial, conviction, crucifixion, death, and burial. And on the third day? An empty grave and a risen Savior. Because nothing, no thing whatsoever, not even death, can keep us away from God's love in Jesus Christ. Not even bleak, cold, endless winter nights. Not even sweet peeled pineapple! I am persuaded!

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Five Minute Friday :: Journey

• Five Minute Friday :: Journey Linkup

It's about the journey, not the destination is a commonplace observation because it rings so true. I even have an Old Navy shirt that announces that reality! Do you think of it as a Journey or a Trip or an Adventure? After observing me for a while, a coworker told me I loved the thrill of the chase. Indeed I do. But is that a chase or is it a pursuit? (Check out last week's Five Minute Friday)! Is a chase or a pursuit an intrinsic part of the journey or is it an added after market component?

Any of us could write or talk forever about their journeys so far and their hopes for the days and moths to come. But right now the church is in the season of Lent.

As we prepare for Easter during this forty day long season, many slow down, become more intentional about study and service, possibly take on a meaningful project or activity and often relinquish a sensual favorite such as meat, wine, or desserts.

In Luke's gospel, the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross is particularly focused and incessant. Jesus first sets his face toward Jerusalem in Luke 9:51. Toward Jerusalem—the cross and the empty grave. Does knowing Jesus' persistence working through his calling and destiny help your Lenten considerations as we anticipate death, resurrection, and the possibility of a new creation?


• About my header picture: When we enjoy a recipe from a different culture or country, when we have tea, coffee, fruit, or condiments that actually originated elsewhere, is that a way of taking a journey, making a trip? As we receive a literal taste of Greece, a hint of the Caribbean, a portion of Southern Soul, it definitely is! The Koreatown Los Angeles coffee and tea stop with its international customers and international bill of fare felt perfect for today's topic.

• I've piggybacked parts of this from my scripture blog for this week: Lent 2 :: Reminiscere

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Epiphany 2C

Intro

Tony Campolo, "The kingdom of God is a party." Not like a party, not some semblance of a celebration, but the reign of heaven on earth is the real thing.

This is MLK weekend. The USA and many other countries have been impacted with frightening political, social, and economic uncertainties. Unprecedented wildfires have leveled Los Angeles area neighborhoods. Wars and other armed conflicts simmer and explode across the globe.

John 2:1-11

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴ And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.

⁹ When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the best wine until now."

¹¹ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Background

So far in this year of grace and season of revelation we've waited for God in our midst, we've been awed at the nativity of the infant Savior, we've met visitors from the East bearing gifts, we've joined a crowd alongside the Jordan.

After his riverside baptism by his cousin John the Baptist that all four gospels include, each gospel brings us a different version of Jesus' first act of public ministry. How can that be? Most likely they all happened around the same time, but each writer chose a particular one because it fit their perspective better.

The community surrounding John the beloved disciple writes about Jesus' signs rather than miracles. A miracle implies suspension of natural laws (which sometimes is the case, and sometimes there is a logical explanation), but a sign points beyond itself to a place, event, person, or idea—in this case, to Jesus. The Greek here is like our word semiotic that relates to signs, symbols, meanings. This gospel includes seven signs and seven "I Am" statements from Jesus. In Hebrew numerology, seven is the number of perfection or completion.


New Creation

In Matthew and Luke, after incarcerated John the Baptist wonders about Jesus being "the one who is to come," Jesus replies "go tell John what you see and hear: blind see; lame walk; diseased become clean; dead are raised! poor receive good news."

• Luke 7:20-22

• Matthew 11:2-5

These events fulfill John's signs.

John's gospel brings us the most explicit new creation.

• In the beginning … God –Genesis 1:1
• In the beginning … was the word –John 1:1

logos, word connotes both origin (where this came from) and immanence (what this might become). Does that sound theological?

On the seventh day God finished the work. –Genesis 2:2
"It is finished!" –John 19:30

• And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden… –Genesis 2:8

The garden of Jesus' burial and resurrection becomes the new garden of Eden

• Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one ever had been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. –John 9:41-42

The first day of the week is the eighth day of creation, the first day of the new creation.

• Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. –John 20:1
• Supposing him [Jesus] to be the gardener… –John 20:15b

Of the four canonical gospels, John brings us the most fully realized eschatology (protology is the word about first things, about origins; eschatology is the word about last things, about conclusions)—the clearest right here and right now of the reign of heaven on earth. A wedding party perfectly fits that worldview!


Today's Good News

This reading begins, "On the third day." In that place and time, the third day – Tuesday – was considered the best day for a wedding. But as Easter people, we also recognize the third day as the day of resurrection that initiates the new creation. And back then and there, an extravagant wedding party where everyone gets more than the dayenu or "it would have been enough" of the Passover song would be a primary indicator of the messianic age.

Cana in Galilee was disreputable gentile territory known for thieves and petty criminals. This wedding was not at an elite venue or an aspirational destination. Jesus performed this sign among regular, ordinary, working class people. Most of the guests and reception attendants probably lived nearby; some may have worked in the vineyard.

A wedding is an occasion to party; a wedding brings families together and gathers a community in one place for a single purpose. Whatever is happening elsewhere in the world, a wedding hopes for and promises a future. The couple getting married trusts that a future will arrive.

This isn't the old band Canned Heat Going Up the Country singing about "where the water tastes like wine." This is water that has become wine, and "you have kept the best wine until now!" –John 2:10


Where We Live

At the start of his public ministry Jesus attends a party and makes the party even better, in a preview of the rest of his time on earth. But two thousand years after Jesus' death and resurrection, we still experience death, disease, destruction, deadly fires, nations at war, a threat of government that is not by the people, of the people, or for the people.

Evidently a recent article in The Atlantic informed readers we need to party more. It was behind a paywall and no one provided a summary, but I agree.

After the 911 attack on the World Trade Center, although we didn't exactly rejoice with a block party, two days later on Thursday evening several churches in our neighborhood gathered to celebrate Eucharist, a meal with the risen Christ. Here's one of my reflections about it:

• 911 :: 22 years later

Literally in spite of everything we glanced into all creation healed and whole. We briefly lived in that future moment God dreams of and calls us to help create. Did you know the chasuble the person presiding at Eucharist vests in is the wedding garment of the messianic feast?

To paraphrase Cornel West, "We are people of hope. Why do we party on Friday night? Why do we go to church on Sunday?"

Because the Kingdom of God, the Reign of Heaven is a party!

Five Minute Friday :: Stuff

• Five Minute Friday :: Stuff Linkup

The snow duck is so cute!

My first take on this week's prompt was memories of cultural anthropology professor Tim searching for the proper word and finally coming up with "stuff" for the topic under discussion. Stuff encompasses a whole lot of tangibles and intangibles. I even have a "life stuff" label or tag for this blog.

Ya know what? I really really enjoy much of life's stuff that tends to collect and pile up (on its own and by itself of course). Some of that stuff, those things, are helpful or utilitarian, but usefulness aside, pieces that excite me tend to be colorful and/or visually appealing. That means quilts, dishes, paintings and other wall art. It means clothes I wear every day or only occasionally. Sweaters, dresses, scarves!

What's my pleasure for blogging today's stuff? Notice my header image features imperfect flowers and the font for STUFF is eroded. But what stuff will I write about? Imperfect life stuff everything, confounded memories, eroded hopes, broken dreams… And unexpected, open-ended futures.

We're again into the quiet season of Advent. Advent in the global North happens as winter moves in, as we anticipate the shortest day, longest night. As we anticipate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, the light of the world. First-born from the dead.

Jesus' eventual followers never imagined the type of Savior he would be. Religious higher-ups couldn't cope with his faithfulness to Torah that yet turned upside down their stilted interpretations. He confounded governmental leaders. But Jesus' earthly ministry was only the beginning. At least in their heads, most knew the thread of death and resurrection that weaves through the Hebrew scriptures, but the lived reality of new life, revitalized stuff of every kind from the ashes of the old? Memories are short. Comprehension not exactly comprehensive.

Doesn't that sound like us? This isn't the way it needs to be. This isn't how it always will be. Did you know winter is necessary for some flowers to bloom? So necessary that if winter isn't cool enough or dark enough in that location, you need to imitate colder darker days for newness ever to be.

Flowers and veggies and fruits, yes! What about communities, countries, individuals, movements, ideas that need to winter before they spring to life?

Imperfect life stuff everything, confounded memories, eroded hopes, broken dreams… And unexpected futures!

Are you letting the stuff of your hopes and dreams hibernate so it can blossom and bloom? Is your future stuff worth letting this present winter for a while? Whether it's material like quilts and clothing, spiritual like closer connections to the Spirit, career-related like increased opportunities for service and change, all that stuff sometimes needs to be ignored for a season for unexpected, open-ended futures. Wintering is part of practicing resurrection! Really!

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Five Minute Friday :: Toward…

• Five Minute Friday :: Toward

…the light.

In the global north, days are getting shorter (the corollary? Longer nights). Every year I anticipate summer warmth, summer light, summer activities. I never can get enough of those very good things. Yet just as astronomical seasons are essential for the well-being of this planet's flora and fauna (we can include humanity in that "fauna" category), seasons of work, play, rest, and repose are essential to the allover health of human individuals and human communities.

I've long aligned my own annual journey with the seasonal rhythms of the liturgical year. Each new year of grace opens wide during Advent, a time of approximately one month that starts on the Sunday closest to Saint Andrew's Day (November 30th). Advent is the favorite season for many who observe the Christian year. It's a time of hope, of waiting, of expectation. We mark our wait toward the winter solstice when days begin to lengthen by lighting candles. One candle on the first Sunday of Advent, two on the second, three candles on Advent 3, then four, and finally on the festival of the nativity, a Christ child candle surrounds the other four.

From Advent to Christmas, darkness becomes the matrix for wanting light, for appreciating light, for going toward the light. From Good Friday to Easter Sunday dawn we also wait in darkness. At the Easter Vigil we kindle the new fire, we light the Paschal (Easter) candle from the new fire. The celebrants enter the church building as they proclaim "the light of Christ;" then everyone lights their own candle from the flame of the Paschal candle. From the light of Christ.

We have a choice to walk toward the light of Christ or keep hiding in the dark. Do you know "I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light" by Kathleen Thomerson? The tune is lovely, lyrical, and easy to sing; the lyrics grounded in scripture:

I want to walk as a child of the light.
I want to follow Jesus.
God set the stars to give light to the world.
The star of my life is Jesus.

Refrain:
In him there is no darkness at all.
The night and the day are both alike.
The Lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.

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Five Minute Friday :: Unexpected

• Five Minute Friday :: Unexpected Linkup

During Advent we sing, "Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free." But have you noticed? It often turns out to be "Unexpected Jesus," because of countless surprises the Savior brings.

Remember how his first followers imagined a king like Jesus' ancestor David? After all, Jesus did descend from that illustrious line. They assumed Jesus would banish the occupying imperial regime because Roman violence, taxation, oppression, and greed created a culture of fear, an economy of deprivation. Those first dozen even aspired to sitting on opulent thrones alongside their teacher and mentor. Being led to a cross of shame followed by an astonishing dawn of glory? Unexpected, yes! Who ever could have imagined life from death? Maybe not so much, even though it's a constant refrain in the Hebrew scriptures

As central as those aspects are to our testimony of the Savior and our journey alongside him, I've been thinking more of unexpected little things. At the end of each day I thank God for all the good things, the goodness itself, the gifts I've received, the grace filled surprises during the previous twenty-hours. Some are in your face, like the Saturday Dollar Tree customer behind me who paid for my entire order. Like another guest at the hostel where I've been staying who often surprises me with food. Recents have included a light lunch of avocado toast and cheese, a banana and jelly toast to add to my breakfast… late morning air fried french fries today. Food is my love language, so I instantly resonate with those gifts.

But a few "little things" require more intentional observation. Posies in my header I discovered blooming bright along a very urban thoroughfare. Going outside late afternoon and knowing the misty air is a gift we need to help counter drought in this coastal desert. Plain spotting near LAX and celebrating visitors from places I love like Amsterdam and Toronto, even though I can't be in those cities right now. An extra hour of sleep as we go from Daylight Saving into Standard Time. Well, for me it wasn't extra because I had to get up early to get to my keyboard supply gig on time, but think how much earlier it would have felt without the storied "time change"?

What are some unexpecteds that add flavor and spice to your days?

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Five Minute Friday :: History

Clockwise from upper left:

• Beach House in Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
• All Saints Church, University City, San Diego, California
• Downtown Los Angeles, California
• Boston, Massachusetts skyline across the Charles River
• Five Minute Friday :: History Linkup

We can't escape those written, spoken, and/or illustrated chronicles of events in particular times and places that shape us in both hidden and apparent ways. Most of us know some of our own original and extended family history, the story of our town or city, our province or state—and country, of course. For many that includes history of the place our family migrated from a few years or a few centuries ago. Our awareness of a few millennia of world history may not be as acute as our knowledge of more local and recent events, yet it surrounds us in our habits, preferences, longings, and perspectives.

Then there's the history of the whole people of God. Earlier this month on my scripture blog I wrote a little about salvation history:

Heilsgeschichte [Heil=salvation; Geschichte=history] brings together fairly objective, empirical facts with the lived experiences of the people, often with a sense of saga or myth; Heilsgeschichte has a far greater degree of density than the evidence, cause, and effect history we study in school.

In addition to our incorporation in local and world history, baptism embeds us in the history of planet earth – of all creation – in the history of the whole people of God. Water is the womb of this planet's creation and the womb of our first birth as humans. Baptized into Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, we experience our first death, our second birth – our re-creation – as we identify with earth's history.

Very late Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, or extremely early Sunday morning the Vigil of Easter revisits the meta-narratives of creation and of deliverance from death to life in the Exodus and Passion/Easter stories. Maybe you've heard of the Passover Seder referred to as "eating history?"

The book of Revelation foretells the reconciliation of all things, of the lion lying down with the lamb, of people from east and west, from north and south, gathered around the welcome table of the Messianic Feast. The garden of resurrection has grown into a city, where the river of life and the tree of life provide for all creation. Some theologians refer to that as the end of history! What do you think?

Our God is God of history. We are God's people. We are people of history. We are people of Easter hope.

Sunday's coming!
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Dawnwashed Blues

Patterned after the liturgy of the hours, but now in remembrance and anticipation of Easter dawn, there's a Christian tradition of Morning Watch. Shorter nights were divided into three watches, longer nights into four. The fourth and last segment of the night watch – the morning watch – is from 3 to 6am. During this final watch of the night, darkness gently eases into the quiet early light of Easter dawn and God's Glory softly splashes over all creation.

Here's a reflection about that hour of…

dawnwashed blues

during each night's final watch,
darkness gently eases into
quiet early light of daybreak's dawn
God's Glory softly splashes
over drowsing creation

yesterday's final light of day
followed by a slender slice of moonglow
held no starshimmer
during middle night's intensely indigo blues
today's hushed daybreak
whispered itself over creation’s
night's end watch anticipating dawn's first light

a sunup-washed sky shined with light-washed sheen
dawnwashed new morning blues made
fresh-sprung break of pale day blues