RESURRECTION

When the cross hits your life, a loneliness, a blindness and a darkness come all around you. Darkness and lostness are the worst parts of suffering.

The wonder of the Resurrection is that this darkness was opened out and at the heart of the darkness a secret light was discovered. Each one of us who has come here hasn’t come to this place out of curiosity but we have come because we know the need that is in our lives and we know the frailty that is in our hearts and minds.

We are strangers in the world. In our journey through life anything can befall us. It seems to be very difficult for us as humans to learn how to love, to learn how the let the fear and the resentment and the blindness fall away from us and to come into the special joy and peace and freedom of love.

No matter how assured or competent we may feel, there is none of us who has not large territories of fear in our hearts, fear of sharing ourselves, of opening ourselves, of entering life.

That is why we come to an ancient holy place like this, before the dawn, to let the new tender light of the resurrection touch our helpless fear and transfigure it and open it into courage.

~ John O'Donohue from his Easter Homily at Corcomroe Abbey 1992.

  Photo (Corcomroe Abbey where John's Easter sunrise services were celebrated) 

Voor Golgota

 

Ons deel vandag in Sy uitlewering

Ons foute en pyn het Hom beskuldig

Vandag het hulle hom geklap

Ons het Hom gedoring

Die aardse keiser gekies bo Hom

Donker dag voor Golgota

Doop jou kruislewe in Sy bloed

OVERTURNED TABLES IN THE HOUSE OF LIFE

MARKETPLACE IN THE WORSHIP PLACE "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 'It is written,' he said to them,' 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'" (Matthew 21:1-12-13).    Jesus entered Jerusalem to begin the last week of his life on earth (sometimes called Passion week) with incredible drama. What must his disciples have thought? He rode down the hillside path with throngs of people shouting his praise, and then, approaching the beautiful temple on the other side of the valley, he entered its courts and "cleansed" the temple. Sheep scattered through the courtyard, doves flew out of broken cages, coins rang out as they scattered on the stone plaza, and there was Jesus in the middle of it all, driving away the merchants who saw the temple courtyard as a great place to cash in. Now Jesus had no problem with the sacrificial system. It's in the Old Testament, and the principle of sacrificial giving is part of the plan of God. But when the din of human activity drowns out the prayers of the people of God, then it has gone too far. The temple as "the house of prayer" was to be a place where the worshiper was caught up with awe for the Almighty. It was a place where the people could have an encounter with their Father and Lord. The hubbub of institutionalized religiosity was a poor substitute. And so, Jesus entered Jerusalem at the start of that important week, and smashed everything that did not fit with God's character. Sometimes God can only build after he has torn down. Ponder This: What part of your life might Jesus want to overturn, to cleanse, in order to start over?   Learn how you can increase and deepen your influence HERE... The Brook Network, sponsored by Elmbrook Church, is an exchange of ideas and growing set of relationships. Like us on FACEBOOK   |  Follow us on TWITTER