DEVOTIONAL: In reflecting upon the Easter story as recounted in the Gospel of Mark, it sometimes feels like I’ve been taken back to my childhood and offered a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel! Which ending would you like? According to the footnotes of the New Revised Standard Version, some of the most ancient authorities have the resurrection account of Mark ending at verse 8 and so that will be the ending I’ll work with for this devotional. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: In this passage, the writer of Acts shares a radical new insight — that Christ’s message breaks through borders of nation and creed, not with military might, but with the power of love. In our own era, we are charged with spreading the message of a loving God not only across borders, but through time, enacting Christ’s love afresh in the context of our own world and in our daily lives. I offer the following poem as a meditation on Christ’s resurrection in our own time. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: This year I am reading the crucifixion story through the lens of an unknown photographer’s camera. One of my responsibilities as a member of the Lenten planning committee at Berkey Avenue Mennonite Church, has been to choose visual images to project during the scripture readings. For me, these kinds of juxtapositions are a form of Bible study that can break open the text in new ways. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: Today is known as Maundy Thursday, the day Christians remember the very first communion when Jesus enacted the bread and wine ceremony that symbolized God’s love for fallen humankind. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: What do you think of when you hear or see the word “prayer”? I have to be honest, I often think of what “bad” things are going on in my life and how God needs to help me. (more…)

SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 25:6-9 (NRSV) Scroll down for complete Scripture.

DEVOTIONAL: Isaiah 25:6-9 is the ultimate picture of God’s goodness — people sitting together, sharing food, engaging in a community of God’s children. It is the picture that Jesus lived out during his time on earth, and what he calls all of us to do. (more…)

THIS WEEK’S THEME: He has been raised

DEVOTIONAL: “He has risen, he has risen indeed!”

Ever since I can remember, my pastors have begun the Easter Sunday sermon with these words. Nonetheless, I remained relatively ignorant of the profound ramifications of Christ’s resurrection until last year. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: As a child, I loved the unbounded joy of Palm Sunday — Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the cries of “Hosanna” and the waving of branches. Mass always ended with ushers handing out priest-blessed strips of palm. My brothers, sisters and I eagerly took them home, made them into crosses and pinned them to our bedroom walls. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: This passage — although it was written well before his time on Earth — reminds me of the suffering and shame Jesus endured for me, so I wouldn’t need to. I am reminded of how Jesus never faltered in his faith and how, when the time was right, he faced Jerusalem and his certain fate. The instruction in this passage is the same instruction Jesus followed. (more…)

DEVOTIONAL: My reading of Philippians 2:5-11 was deepened by Johannes Baptist Metz’s book, Poverty of Spirit, which is a meditation on this passage. Metz illuminates how several major heresies about the nature of Jesus attempt to deny Jesus’ humanity; so too, Metz observes, we seek to evade, ignore and reject our own humanity. (more…)