From the Presiding Bishop – Hallelujah Anyhow
Easter 2019 Message. You can watch the video below.
The Rt. Reverend Barbara Harris was the first woman ordained and consecrated a bishop in The Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. In her memoir, entitled Hallelujah, Anyhow! [she] quotes an old Gospel hymn that says it this way:
Hallelujah anyhow
Never let your troubles get you down
When your troubles come your way
Hold your hands up high and say
Hallelujah anyhow!
When I get to Heaven, I want to meet one person, and her name is Mary Magdalene. Because if ever there was another Hallelujah, Anyhow sister, it was Mary Magdalene. And her life, and her example, tells us what it means to follow in the way of Jesus, in the Way of Love.
Mary Magdalene showed up when others would not. Mary Magdalene spoke up when others remained silent. Mary Magdalene stood up when others sat down.
John’s Gospel tells us that when many of the disciples fled and abandoned Jesus, Mary Magdalene stood by him at the cross. Hallelujah, Anyhow.
Against the odds, swimming against the current, Mary Magdalene was there.
John’s Gospel says in the 20th chapter, early in the morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene and some of the other women went to the tomb. Hallelujah, Anyhow.
They went to the tomb when it didn’t make any sense. They went to the tomb when the evidence was against them. Jesus was dead. They knew that. The power of the Empire had crushed the hope of love. They knew that. And they got up in the morning and went to the tomb anyhow. Hallelujah, Anyhow.
But more than that, John’s Gospel says it was dark. It was dark. That’s not just the time of day in John’s Gospel. The darkness in John is the domain of evil. In John’s Gospel when Judas leaves the Last Supper to betray Jesus, John inserts a parenthetical remark. When Judas leaves to betray him, John says, “And it was night.” The darkness is the domain of wrong, of hatred, of bigotry, of violence, the domain of sin and death and horror.
And early in the morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, Hallelujah, Anyhow.
The truth is, she didn’t know that Jesus was alive. She was just doing what love does. Caring for her beloved, her Savior, her friend, in his time of death, to give him the last rites of burial. And when she got to the tomb, and the other women with them, they eventually discovered that Jesus was alive, and in the silence of the night, in the moments of despair, in the moments of the worst darkness, God had done something incredible. God had raised Jesus from the dead
The truth is, nobody saw Jesus rise from the dead, because God had done it secretly and quietly, when nobody was looking.
When I was in high school, I learned a poem composed by James Russell Lowell. He wrote it in the 19th century, in one of the darkest periods in American history, when this country was torn asunder by the existence of chattel slavery in our midst. In this great land of freedom, there were slaves being held in bondage. And this nation literally went to war, tearing itself apart, trying to find the way to do what was right. And James Russell Lowell wrote, in the midst of this darkness, in this dark hour:
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet ‘tis truth alone and strong . . .
Though her portion be a scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own
Hallelujah, Anyhow.
Christ is risen
The Lord is risen, indeed.
God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
Nursery School
Wednesday evening, April 10th, was a busy time at the Saint James’ Nursery School. It was our STEAM night – focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math. Teachers and staff were there along with our students and their parents with lots of activities. Fittingly, this was the exact same day that scientists and engineers released the first direct image ever captured of a massive black hole.
The staff prepared multiple stations, each station had at least one STEAM activity. For example, at one station children designed a sailboat to float without tipping, sail in a breeze, and survive a rainstorm. Students chose a hull, mast, and sail from various sizes and shapes, designed their sail boat and then tested and watched it on the water, in a breeze, and getting showered from a watering can.
Good Friday Offering
Creating new relationships with and among the Christians of the Middle East
On Good Friday you will have the opportunity to support our brothers and sisters in the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Please take the time to read Bishop Curry’s annual letter below:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I greet you in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you as we look ahead to Holy Week, with its focus on our Lord’s sacrificial offering
of love on the cross.
The Good Friday Offering of our Church is one way to help connect the love of Christ on the cross
with our support of the ongoing ministry of love and compassion carried out by our Anglican sisters
and brothers throughout the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.
Whether funding a hospital in Gaza or the West Bank, or an eye clinic in Aden, or women’s
programs, or summer camps and leadership training for young people, the Good Friday Offering is
making a difference in the lives of so many. I have witnessed this Jesus-inspired compassion and
commitment at work with my own eyes. I believe our partnership with those who keep the faith of
Jesus alive in the region, where our Lord walked and began his movement, is a significant aspect of
our work as part of the church catholic.
I hope you will participate in this effort. Please visit www.episcopalchurch.org/good-friday-offering
where you will find bulletin covers, bulletin inserts, and other helpful information. Any questions
about this program may be directed to the Rev. Canon Robert Edmunds, our Middle East
Partnership Officer. He can be reached at redmunds@episcopalchurch.org.
Thank you for considering this important witness to the love of Jesus across our Church. May God
bless you and keep you always. I remain
Your brother in Christ,
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Office Schedule for the week of April 14.
Monday, closed. Tuesday through Thursday, 10-4.
Easter Egg Hunt!
It’s time to get ready for our Easter Day egg hunt! Don’t forget to bring in your filled eggs for hiding. We will begin at 9:30 in the Memorial Garden.
A is for Africa Mite Box and Lenten Calendar Ingathering on Easter Day
A reminder to everyone to bring back your Lenten mite boxes as well as your Lenten Calendar donations on Easter Day!
Prayer Rotation
Please join the Daughters of the King in praying for each parishioner in rotation during 2018 by taking this notice home and by posting it where it will remind you to pray on a daily basis for the needs and blessings of:
David and Brittany Echeverria (Kellen, Daxton, Rowan)
Bill and Lynda Ellis
Bob and Carolyn Etzler
A member of the Daughters of the King will be contacting you this week for special prayer requests.
| Lectionary readings for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 28, 2019 (Year C, RCL) Acts 5:27-32 Psalm 150 Revelation 1:4-8 John 20:19-31 |
| This week’s Commemorations (A Great Cloud of Witnesses, 2019, Church Publishing Group)
April 21 Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1109 |
