The Great Fifty Days, colluding with our present distancing societal protocols, provides us with an unparalleled invitation to luxuriate in the resurrection accounts, and indeed in Jesus’ resurrection itself! Inhabit, stretch our scriptural legs a bit, poke and prod and putter about as we intentionally and reverently receive each and
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<EDITORIAL NOTE: This reflection featuring a marked divine preference for the right side of the boat, inferring a more abundant draught of fish over against the left side, demonstrates an unabashed dextral bias. Your Eastertide Reflection Editorial Committee, comprised of sinistral individuals, apologizes for this blatant bias in gospel maritime
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In 1899 Missouri congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver addressed a Philadelphia Men’s Club, and stated the following in his remarks: “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show
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Okee dokee smokee, here’s where John veers off the resurrection reservation bigtime! Read John 20:19-23. Remember for Luke the Resurrection of Jesus is paired with His ascension into heaven during one very long day?! Well here, in John, the Resurrection is paired with the Pentecost event of the giving of
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We continue our Johnannine resurrection journey with the candlelight flickering upon the corner table barely large enough for two in close quarters. This is the anti-social distance resurrection story, and if my interpretation shocks you, well…..good. While I have never ascribed to the wild inferences of a physical relationship between
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For the final time we return to the Empty Tomb, this time in John 20:1-10. Note the distinctive Johnannine features. Mary Magdalene visits alone here, not to complete the burial details (as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus have already accomplished) but just to grieve. The stone is not just rolled
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We now arrive to our final grouping of resurrection texts, and finally, to a scriptural neighborhood with which I am actually acquainted! Whew! Our final texts cohere under the broad umbrella of John, or using a more accurate descriptor, Johnannine, meaning they use the vocabulary, reflect the sophisticated and distinctive
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Poor Professor and Mary Ann. Yes, loyal readers it’s time to sit right back and hear a tale! How can we speak about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and not include…Gilligan’s Island?! This beloved 1960’s television cult classic, the godfather of Survivor and Castaway, disrespected the Professor and Mary Ann
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When?! When does this isolation conclude?! When can we get back to work?! When is there an effective treatment?! When do we get a vaccine?! When??!! Well, let’s turn to an authority on schedules for more insight….we welcome into the Eastertide Reflection studio today “Mr. Jesus.” Mr. Jesus serves as
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Luke 24 is truly the scriptural gift which just keeps on giving! But sadly we have reached the end…or have we?! Today we (kinda) close with Luke 24:44-53, again, all on this very extended Easter Day. Again we come geographically close to Jerusalemite churches, the Lazarium, Eleona (atop the Mount
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