The Stations of the Cross (2) Adapted from www.preachingpeace.org

 It seems to be human nature that we want to leap over the challenging times of life and get to the good parts.  That is understandable.  However, I believe we need to not avoid the dark nights of the soul and embrace, or at least not deny those times.  How can we begin to know something of ourselves and of God when the dark times engulf us and threaten to overwhelm us?  What can we learn from those times when everything including God seems to have abandoned us?  We desire to quickly move from the despair of Good Friday to the joys of Resurrection Sunday.  I used an adaption of the Stations of the Cross on our Good Friday service. 

Last time I introduced the Stations of the Cross and looked at the first five stations.  This time I will finish our journey with Jesus to Golgotha. 

Station VI: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem 

“Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children.” The women of Jerusalem want to weep for you as though your fate were unrelated to theirs, as though the violence you suffer did not own them as well. You turn their sympathy back on them; remind them that your fate is their fate, too.

How many times have we contemplated your Passion, Lord, and wanted to cry for you? How many times have we wanted to weep because of your pain, and not because we caused it? How often have we blinded ourselves to our complicity in violence by feeling sorry for the victims?

Station VII: Jesus falls Again

Jesus, you have done all that you can do. When you fall this last time, you entrust the remainder of what must be done to us. There is no more strength. You are utterly beaten, defeated, but we are not finished. Like the potter’s clay, we will now make you into what we need you to be.

How many times have we seen another’s weakness as an opportunity to shape them, to change them into what we want them to be? How many times do we take advantage of the fact that you are too weak to resist, Jesus, and fasten you to the Cross?

Station VIII: Jesus is nailed to the Cross

Hanging for hours on a cross is not cruel enough, Jesus. Watching you suffocate will not mollify our rage. Life has been so unfair to us, we have such rage that we have to use nails, instead of the traditional ropes. Rage bleeds away as nails, meant for wood, cut easily through human flesh.

How many times have we allowed our rage to drive us to cruelty? Cruel acts? Cruel speech? How many times has another borne the scars of our rage?

Station IX: Jesus dies on the Cross

We stand in stunned silence as we survey the result of our sin. The Lord of Life hangs dead from the tree. The peace we pursued as we chased you up the hill refuses to come. As we gaze upon you, Jesus, our victim, the realization dawns. Violence will never again bring peace, and we are terrified.

Mute with horror, we stumble to our homes, as though the earth were moving under our feet. The ground itself seems unsteady as we contemplate a world without violence. On what will we stand?

Station X: Jesus is taken down from the Cross.

We have all departed by the time the guards permit those who love you to bring you down from the Cross. Once the spectacle ended, we are compelled to leave. There is something horrible and fascinating about you as you hang there, and it frightens us. We leave the task of dealing with your body to those who are already unclean.

How often, O Lord, have we fled our own horror, left the care of the dead and the dying to others? How many times have we let our fear of the power of death drive us into hiding?

Station XI: Jesus is laid in the tomb 

In a tomb that you could never have afforded, those who did not abandon you, those who refused to join the mob, lay your body to rest with great tenderness. There is nothing divine in the torn flesh, nothing holy in the bloodied brow. There is only sorrow, deeper than the greatest trenches in the ocean. Sorrow.

You will breathe life once again into our deadened spirits, Jesus, but not on this day. Today we walk as those robbed of hope, shuffling from one place to another as though we belonged in the tomb with you. Perhaps, without the breath of your new life, that is precisely where we belong.

Silence

The Stations of the Cross Adapted from www.preachingpeace.org

It seems to be human nature that we want to leap over the challenging times of life and get to the good parts.  That is understandable.  However, I believe we need to not avoid the dark nights of the soul and embrace, or at least not deny hose times.  What can we begin to know something of ourselves and of God when the dark times engulf us and threaten overwhelm us?  What can we learn from those times when everything including God seems to have abandoned us?  We desire to quickly move from the despair of Good Friday to the joys of Resurrection Sunday.  I used an adaption of the Stations of the Cross on our Good Friday service.  Here are the first five stations.  I will finish the journey with Jesus to Golgotha in my next edition.

 Station I: Jesus is condemned to die

Pilate said, “I find no fault with this man,” but when the crowd grew loud, he grew silent. “I wash my hands. You deal with him.” Pilate had the knowledge and the power to stand and say no to the world as it sought to crush the Lord of Life. He didn’t use either.  How many times do I have the knowledge and the power to say no, and stay silent? How many times do I participate, by my silence, in the Passion of Jesus? Who will die because I do not say no?

 Station II: Jesus takes up his cross. 

 This cross has been thousands of years in the making. Its weight grows greater each time I look for someone to blame for the pain in my world. Each time I insist that sin must be punished, I add an ounce to the burden Jesus carries for me.  This is the cross he carries, the cross of blame, of vengeance.  When have I said, “Well, he certainly deserved that!” or “It’s only fair. Look at what she did!”  When have I failed to forgive as I have been forgiven. When have I laid more weight on your blessed shoulders?

 Station III: Jesus falls the first time

The laughter at your first fall is transformative, Jesus. The gathered “I’s” surrounding you laugh together, becoming a “we” for the first time. We laugh together; we reduce you to a joke, to something less than a man. Your first fall is the fall of my “I.” I am lost now, in the collective “I” of the mob.  How many times, Lord, have I sacrificed my “I” as I took satisfaction or pleasure in the fall of another?

Station IV: Jesus meets his mother. 

We want to make you a clown. We want to isolate you completely, but your mother will not permit it. She withstands the blows of taunt and sorrow to be present for you along the way. She alone remains to give you courage, to remind us that you are someone’s child, just like we are.

 How many times, Lord, have we watched another suffer, but from a safe distance? How many times have you looked out through the eyes of another for comfort, but were unable to find it?

 Station V:  Simon helps Jesus carry the Cross 

We need you to die, Jesus, but our rage has gone too far. You are too weak to continue on to the head of the mountain because we have beaten you so severely. When you can’t go on by yourself, we look for a solution that won’t involve us too closely. We mustn’t touch the cross ourselves, but the process must go on. Then we find our answer. A stranger, someone who obviously has no idea who you are will carry the cross. He knows nothing of your innocence. ow many others have we called on to do our violence for us? How many soldiers pulled triggers because we could not? How many executioners pushed buttons for us? 

On Being Troublesome Priests

"Will no one rid me of this troublesome (or turbulent) priest?"  That famous quote is attributed to King Henry II who was expressing his frustration at the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket in 1170.  Well, some knights took him at his word and murdered Becket.  This was made famous by T.S. Eliot in his play Murder in the Cathedral. 

There have been many troublesome priests and other religious people since that time.  The latest, for the moment, being the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Bishop Washington.  Bishop Budde preached a sermon during the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral on the occasion of the inauguration of Donald J trump as the 47^th president of the United States.  In the sermon, Bishop Budde directly addressed President Trump who was in attendance:

In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”

As might be expected, this has caused something of a furor amongst certain groups including some in the U.S. House of Representatives.  House Resolution 59, a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 23, condemned the sermon preached by Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde.  “It is the sense of the House of Representatives that the sermon given at the National Prayer service on Jan. 21, 2025, at the National Cathedral was a display of political activism. The House of Representatives condemns the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde’s distorted message,” said the resolution drafted by Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.).

The negative response has not been restricted to politicians.  As noted in one source, “Other Anglicans have expressed concern or frustration. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) said on X on January 23, “As a conservative Episcopalian who supports President Trump and his agenda, I am profoundly disappointed that Bishop Mariann Budde politicized today’s inaugural Service of Prayer for the Nation.”

The question that arises in my mind is, ‘what would Jesus do’?  If Bishops, and indeed all Christians, are followers of Jesus Christ we need to be guided by the model of his life.  Jesus was someone who was not popular with the authorities – both religious and secular – to put it mildly.  He angered the Pharisees by healing people on the Sabbath and not falling into the traps they laid for him such as asking if it was lawful for Jews to pay the Roman taxes.  Indeed, they plotted to kill him.  Of course, he challenged the religious authority of the Temple economy by throwing out the money changers who had made God’s house a den of thieves.  I do not have to replete here what the result of all this was.  We celebrate it every year at Easter – specifically Good Friday.

Apparently asking people to show mercy is now a political statement.  If that is the case then all I can say is, so be it.  We are called to love our neighbours as ourselves.  This is absolutely a challenge at the best of times especially given that Jesus tells us our neighbours are not just the nice people we approve of.  It may be a challenge, but to show mercy is never a mistake. 

May we be blessed to give and receive mercy on our journey. 

By the way, Becket was canonized as a saint by Pope Alexander III on February 21, 1173, and on July 12, 1174, Henry II did public penance and was scourged at the archbishop's tomb.  Sometimes there are just deserts.  

 

Far From the Madding Crowd

Sunday marked the Sunday of the Passion with the Liturgy of the Palms.  This was what used to be Palm Sunday when I was growing up.  Certainly, the entry in Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowd and the shouts of Hosanna in the Highest was important enough to have its own day in the church year.  The Passion was marked on Good Friday as it also is with our present liturgy and we will share in that story this coming Friday.  I have had difficulty with the combination of these two significant parts of the story of Jesus Christ.  I believe that each should be marked on their own as significant times in the Church year.   

However, there is value to marking both events.  An important part of both events in the life of Jesus, is the reaction of the crowd.  On Palm Sunday, the crowd is upholding and celebrating Jesus as the Messiah, the new king who was going to re-establish the glory of King David’s Kingdom of earth.  Good Friday shows the dark side of the crowd when they call for his execution.

Both of these events illustrate the danger of the crowd or the masses.  This was addressed in an interview with Eugene Peterson, the author/translator of the popular Message Bible.  The interview was an rebroadcast of an episode of On Being on NPR with Krista Tippett https://onbeing.org/programs/eugene-peterson-answering-god/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=6470d2a3-3ab7-498a-b281-88aaee187cde:

You wrote in The Pastor, your new memoir, I think you spoke to the phenomenon I’m talking about, which — we’re talking about how the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible bring every human aspect into the light, even the worst. And so that is a way of — you talk about crowds. And you said, “Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence … through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs” — chemically induced transcendence — and “recreational sex, and through the ecstasy of crowds.” And you said, “Church leaders frequently warn against the drugs and the sex, but, at least in America, almost never against the crowds.” And there’s something about the moment we inhabit, I think even globally, that that feels very resonant and psychologically astute.

This raises the issue of the danger of crowds.  When someone is part of a crowd, they are not themselves.  They are taken over by the identity of the crowd.  There is little of no consciousness by people who are part of a crowd.  I recall reading somewhere year ago that the average IQ of people who are part of a crowd decreases significantly.  Crowd psychology has been studied by many with the conclusion as noted in Wikipedia, “Crowd behavior is heavily influenced by the loss of responsibility of the individual and the impression of universality of behavior, both of which increase with crowd size.” 

This behaviour is very clearly evident in the violent storming of the United States Capital in January 6, 2021 because of an unfounded belief that the Presidential election was stolen, as well as the occupation of Ottawa in Canada by the so-called Freedom Convoy by individuals who believed that freedom not to be vaccinated or wear a mask trumped all other freedoms of the people in Ottawa if not Canada. 

So, in the Christian year we have crowds in both these significant events demonstrating the sin of crowd psychology where we are no longer the individuals that God created us to be.  The irony is that Jesus Christ was demonstrating that his relationship with his heavenly Father was a unique one which so frequently went against the popular way of acting and being.  He was often followed by crowds such as at the sermon on the mount or when he pissed off the crowd at the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth.  Jesus frequently angered the Pharisees by doing things such as healing people on the Sabbath.  He finally pissed off the authorities - both sacred and secular, which resulted in his execution.  Jesus called his followers to pick up their crosses can follow him.  This cannot be done as part of a crowd.  We each have our unique crosses to bear as Christians and we must find what it means to follow Jesus Christ.  We can only do that if we follow him consciously being aware of what we are called to do.

As Christians begin their journey with Jesus to the agony of the cross and the glory of the Resurrection, may each of you be blessed to know the path you are called to follow.

The Christian Family Tree

With Palm Sunday being celebrated last Sunday, we are now in Holy Week with the anticipation of the Great Triduum; The Great Three Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, The Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.  I know this actually is four days but that Religion for you.  But actually, it is counted from the evening of the Maundy Thursday service, with the foot washing, to the end of the Great Vigil Saturday evening in which the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour is celebrated with the return of the light of Christ to the world.  It recalls the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. This is the foundational story of Christianity. 

I was reminded of how important this is to us when I attended a session on a class on Luther a few weeks ago.  Lorna is taking that class at Huron University College, Luther: Love Him? Loath Him? Learn from Him, which commemorates the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation.  I audited the class on that occasion being April 1^st as we were in London to celebrate my birthday (yes, I am an April Fool and am proud of it). 

The professor, Murray Watson, who is a very engaging teacher, provided a hand out entitled, The Christian Family Tree compiled by Rev. Nathan L. Bostian.    This diagram has Jesus Christ as the “root and foundation” with all the major branches of Christianity which have sprung up in the two thousand years since then.  It has all the main branches which we are familiar with including the Anglican dated in 1536.  It gives the Denomination rating with such things as “T” for Use of Tradition, “W” for Style of Worship and “S” for Structure with a scale from 1 to 10 for each.  Anglicans are rated T4 with 1 begin conservative in tradition and 10 being liberal; W2 for with 1 being sacramental and 10 experimental; and S2 with the range between hierarchical and congregational.  This seems to be fairly accurate for Anglicans.  Of course there is a great range of difference between Anglo-Catholics and whatever the opposite is within the Anglican Church.  But overall it is a reasonable rating.  I can’t speak for the rating for other denominations but I sure there is similar variation within each denomination similar.

The thing that strikes me as I look at the chart is the diversity that has developed in the way we humans can decide to worship our God or gods.  We all believe we have basically the correct understanding of whom and what God is and the way God should be worshiped.  This is true for atheists who have their own god in my view (I leaned in grade 9 math that even a null set is a sub set of a factor) i.e. even non-belief is belief in something.

I am not absolutely certain of many things about God but I am sure that Jesus Christ did not have any idea, despite being fully divine (I’m not absolutely certain about that), that what he started would end up where it is today.  Being a good Jew he likely did not anticipate there being a new Religion named after him or at least after his title of Christ. 

I believe if we are to be at all true to what Jesus wants us to be we must focus on the root of who we are as Christians which is Jesus Christ.  If we all have this in common we should not worry so much about the differences in doctrine and liturgy.  That being said I am glad I have found the “one true faith” of Anglicanism which can worship God along with the other true Christian faiths. 

 To all my brothers and sisters in Christ have a blessed Holy Week and Great Triduum.  

Sermon Good Friday 2016

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

That is the question for us, Were you there when they crucified my Lord?  The easy answer is, of course not; that happened two thousand years ago.  The difficult answer is, well, not so easy is it.  Perhaps I should restate it, “Where would you have been if you had been there when they crucified my Lord”?  Where would I have been on that darkest of dark Good days? 

Would I have been one of the crowd who had a few short days before shouting Hosanna in the highest to the king and are now calling out to Pilot, Crucify, Crucify Him? 

Would I have been a Roman soldier who just followed orders and flogged Jesus relentlessly; after all he was an insurrectionist rabble rouser and we have to make sure that revolutions are nipped in the bud?   

Would I have volunteered to carry his cross and stepped in to that role in place of Simon of Cyrene?  Someone had to do it—after all he had been so violently flogged that he could not carry it himself. 

Would I have been the soldier who nailed his hands and his feet to that terrible means of execution that became for us a symbol of willing sacrifice? 

Would I have been with the disciples who denied Jesus and run away in fear?

Would I have been the one who pierced his side?

Would I have been the centurion who proclaimed, "Truly this man was God’s son”.

Would I have even been one of the one’s at the foot of the cross who stayed with him? 

To be honest I don’t know —none of us can know that for sure.  However, I have my suspicions.  Do I stand against the crowd when there is discrimination against a minority?  Do I always give to the beggar on the street when asked for some spare change?  Do I laugh when someone makes an off colour joke about a Gay or Lesbian person?  Do I give consistently to the local food bank?  Have I been persecuted for righteousness sake?  Have people reviled me and uttered all kinds of evil against me falsely on Jesus’ account?  Have I fed the hungry?  Am I now rich and have received my consolation on this earth?  Have I visited prisoners?  Have I loved my neighbour as myself?  Have I loved my enemies?   When someone strikes me on the cheek do I turn the other one? If someone takes my possessions do I ask for them back?   Do I go the second mile? 

Where would I have been when they crucified my Lord?  Where would you have been?  Amen 

Easter Thoughts and Rants

The current edition of my local Parkhill newspaper, The Gazette, has nicely juxtaposed the conflicting approaches to Easter that exists in our culture.  Although the culture in and around Parkhill is quite traditional in many ways there is a conflicted and conflicting approach to  how Good Friday should be celebrated.  The front page had a large colour picture of the Procession of the Cross celebrated in a joint service of Parkhill United Church and St. James Anglican Church.   The tradition of a joint service was started about ten years ago when I was the rector of St. James (prior to my retirement) along with the United Church minister, Rev. Doug Wright, who is still serving that church.  The service begins at one church and midway a large wooden cross is processed to the other church where the service concludes. 

This is a service that is appreciated by members of both congregations.  In past years we used an adaption of the Stations of the Cross at various points between the two churches.  This is very appropriate for the solemn occasion marking the crucifixion of the founder of our faith; all well and good.  However, the interior of the paper reveals a competing celebration.  The caption over a picture of a group of little children and supervising adults read, “Chocolate galore as Parkhill youngsters enjoy Easter Egg Hunt”.  Of course tradition of the Easter Egg Hunt has been long established in Canada and elsewhere.  The Easter bunny leaving eggs has been a part of Easter celebrations which with its symbol of new life and breaking the Lenten fast and other symbolic aspects tied to Easter.   Some of these include the Eastern Orthodox tradition of abstaining from eggs during Lents and there was (according to Wikipedia) an ancient belief that the hare was a hermaphrodite and “The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child”.  I could go on but the point is that The Easter Egg Hunt is a well-established Christian tradition. 

Now the problem with the ‘Easter’ Egg Hunt in Parkhill is that it occurs (I won’t say celebrated) on the morning of Good Friday.  This of course is completely in opposition to the meaning of Good Friday when Christians celebrate the death of Jesus Christ and Easter Sunday when the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is Celebrated and where the symbol of new life belongs.  Now only that but with Good Friday services being celebrated the same time as the Easter Egg Hunt it means that families must choose between the celebration and the activity.  The secularization of Christian symbols is well established with the materialistic excesses of ‘Christmas’ gift frenzy so I should not be surprized that secular ‘Easter’ celebrations occur.  However, it might be considerate on the part of the organizers at least to celebrate it at a time which doesn’t conflict with the traditional Christian celebration.  The Gazette notes that a neighboring community holds its Easter Egg Hunt on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I believe that it would be a good idea if Christianity separated the celebration of Christmas from the secular in some more specific ways.  This obviously applied to Easter as well.  Just a reminder of how secular and Christian Easter differs from secular Easter, we are still celebrating Easter as we Christians are in the season of Easter which celebrates the period in which Jesus Christ was on earth following his Resurrection.  I will end with the Easter acclamation which is used during the Easter Season:

Celebrant:      The Lord is risen!

People:           The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Celebrant:      May his grace and peace be with you.

People:          May he fill our hearts with joy.

New life indeed!  Alleluia! 

 

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Sermon Easter Sunday 2015

Was there anything in the Gospel reading that was a surprise for you?  Everyone here knows that we have gathered here today to celebrate the empty tomb.  Jesus Christ is risen today; Hallelujah. In fact I invite you to join with me in that wonderful declaration: Jesus Christ is risen today; Hallelujah.

That being said was there anything contained in the reading that surprized you?  One of the principles I attempt to follow in my biblical study and reflection is; the Gospel should surprize you every time you encounter it—either reading it yourself or hearing it proclaimed.    I first heard this approach to engaging the Gospel from Fr. Bill Cliff, the chaplain at Huron College.  It is one that can be challenging but can be very rewarding.  The idea is to approach the bible with fresh eyes and let it speak to you anew each time—to make it the living word of God and not just an old, old story which does not speak to you.

Given that approach, how can we make this old, old story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ surprizing to us?  I heard an interview on CBC radio a few weeks ago that I believe may be of help exploring some surprizing aspects of the Resurrection story.

The person being interviewed spoke about how his son was completely enthralled by a video of the movie Pinocchio.  His son was five years old and he must have watched it fifty times. Now this is not terribly surprizing as any parent knows the experience of having to read a story to their child innumerable times and God forbid you try to skip any part of it.  The surprizing thing in this account was that the child was terrified by the part of the story where Pinocchio was swallowed by the whale.  As I recall. the Disney version of the story—which is the one the boy watched—it is easy to see how a young child could be scared by it.  The father, who is a professor of psychology, noted that his son was compelled to watch it despite being scared because the story was one which was archetypal in its structure and meaning.  It held meaning which resonated with his son on a very deep level. 

I believe that this is in large part what brings us back each year to travel the journey of our Lord and Saviour from his journey to Jerusalem, to his triumphal entry that we celebrated last Sunday, to his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and the passion of Good Friday, and now the triumph of the glorious resurrection that we celebrate today.  In this we have an eternal truth that resonates with us on a deep level.  We know that our Redeemer lives; the power of death has been defeated.

What then is the deep truth that compels us to hear the story and journey with our Saviour each year?  Again, let us turn to that story of Pinocchio.  To remind you this story is an account of an animated puppet, a puppet that is alive but is still a wooden puppet, and his journey to become a real boy.  This is the key to the surprize in today’s Gospel and for us in the Easter story.  The surprise is that Jesus has shown us what it means to be real people just as Pinocchio learned how to be a real boy.  Jesus revealed to us what it means to be fully human.  We have been journeying with Jesus in this Easter journey.  This is an introduction to becoming truly human.  To do that we must do as Jesus commanded and pick up our crosses and follow him.  This is not an easy journey that Jesus showed us.  It led him to the cross.  However, if we are to become the people that God intended us to be when God created us we must pick up our cross and follow him.

How can we possibly do that? Does it mean that we are all to be crucified as Christ was?  I believe that in symbolic ways we are called to that.  Again the key is contained in the story of Pinocchio.  Pinocchio was faced with the reality that when he told a lie—when he did not live the truth of who he was it was evident to all who had eyes to see.  His nose grew longer with every lie he told.  As followers of Jesus Christ our risen saviour we are called to live the truth just as Jesus lived out the truth of who he was. 

We are called above all not to lie to others but more importantly to ourselves.  If we tell ourselves that it does not matter how we treat others—that is a lie.  If we tell ourselves that it doesn’t matter if we cheat on our taxes—as long as we don̓ t get caught—that is a lie.  If we tell ourselves that I am not my brother’s keeper—that is a lie.  If we tell ourselves that the there is nothing I can do to help someone in need—that is a lie.  If we tell ourselves that it doesn’t matter that we don’t pray and read scripture regularlythat is a lie. 

If we live the truth of Christ in our lives we will become fully human well will become a real person as Pinocchio became a real boy.  We will know more fully the love of Christ in our lives.  We will know, truly know, that the power of sin and death has been defeated and we will live our lives free from that fear of death, the death of a thousand lies which holds us captive in its thrall.  That is the surprise and the wonder of Easter.   Jesus Christ is risen today; Hallelujah.