Daughter #2 and famille made it to town in the driving rain on Saturday morning and then it was party central for the rest of the weekend. What fun! We didn’t get to do any driveway sittin’ or drive the miniature raptor, but the good times still rolled. We celebrated our birthdays…
We had lots of primo cousin time…The twins set a good example in church on Sunday and the prairie girls did great.
We went to the boy’s new house after church and had a fabulous time plus a gourmet lunch served up by daughter #3.
Is that a chocolate Westie?!!
An indoor Easter egg hunt was a big hit!
(Katie’s great-grandmother–after whom she is named–made this English smocked dress, which I wore c. 1964.)
It was a super fun weekend and I am super tired! It will take me a few days to recover!
I did watch the second half of Ben Hur on Sunday night–the perfect end to a perfect weekend.
Bonus: The ensemble at church sang this on Good Friday. I cried.
As a child and, if I’m honest, long after, I always wondered why it wasn’t called Bad Friday. Because, as Randy Alcorn explains, “out of the appallingly bad came what was inexpressibly good. And the good trumps the bad, because though the bad was temporary, the good is eternal.”
So let us today contemplate the great love of Christ in facing the wrath of God for us. A good place to start is by reading Jonathan Edward’s sermon on Christ’s Agony. Originally preached sometime in 1739, Edwards’ sermon provides a deep analysis of Luke 22:44 and Christ’s agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is really great, but takes a long time to read, so you better get started.
There are two things that render Christ’s love wonderful: 1. That he should be willing to endure sufferings that were so great; and 2. That he should be willing to endure them to make atonement for wickedness that was so great.
…It was the corruption and wickedness of men that contrived and effected his death; it was the wickedness of men that agreed with Judas, it was the wickedness of men that betrayed him, and that apprehended him, and bound him, and led him away like a malefactor; it was by men’s corruption and wickedness that he was arraigned, and falsely accused, and unjustly judged. It was by men’s wickedness that he was reproached, mocked, buffeted, and spit upon. It was by men’s wickedness that Barabbas was preferred before him. It was men’s wickedness that laid the cross upon him to bear, and that nailed him to it, and put him to so cruel and ignominious a death. This tended to give Christ an extraordinary sense of the greatness and hatefulness of the depravity of mankind.
The picture at the top is “Dogma of the Redemption”; Trinity and Crucifix, Frieze of Angels by John Singer Sargent in the Boston Public Library. At the top of this large half-moon lunette, three crowned figures representing the Holy Trinity share a single red robe, the trim of which bears the Latin word Sanctus, or “Holy,” in repeated gild relief. At center in high plaster relief is the figure of Christ on the cross, flanked by Adam at left and Eve at right. At the base of the cross sits a pelican, considered the sacrificial bird in medieval depictions for its tendency to pluck its own skin in order to provide food for its young when no other nourishment is available. Running along the bottom of the lunette is the Frieze of Angels, figures in primary tones holding symbols of the Passion of Christ, including the spear, pincers, hammer, nails, pillar, scourge, reed, sponge, and crown of thorns.
Side note: the image of a pelican is carved into the front of the pulpit of our church.
How was your Easter weekend? We had our whole family together so it was joyous, if not sometimes a bit overwhelming. I mean seven adults, four children under seven, and a small dog. I am very grateful.
On Saturday daughter #2 and famille arrived and we hung out with daughter #1 and Mr. Smith.
On Easter we all met at church. Lottie and the bud set an excellent example of non-depraved behavior for Katie and Ida in their first visit to church. On their way out of town, daughter #2 texted me Katie’s comment about church:
The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear, (Act 15:21; Rev 1:3); the sound preaching, (2Ti 4:2); and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God, with understanding, faith, and reverence, (Jam 1:22; Act 10:33; Mat 13:19; Hbr 4:2; Isa 66:2); singing of psalms with grace in the heart, (Col 3:16; Eph 5:19; Jam 5:13); as also, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ, are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God, (Mat 28:19; 1Co 11:23-29; Act 2:42):
–The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XXI. 0f religious worship, and the sabbath day
She’s got it, man.
We all reconvened back at our house for pork tenderloin, Presbyterian souffle, salad, and crescent rolls. I prepared them ahead of time and daughter #1, who went to the early service at her church, came over and put everything in the oven, so it was ready when we came home. Teamwork.
No fuss, not much muss. If a menu works, I stick to it.
And, of course, we had an Easter egg hunt.
I washed dishes after everyone went home. And I felt like Ida who practically fell asleep going down the driveway.
Happy Monday! Happy April!
And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”
Christmas has a large and colorful cast of characters including not only the three principals themselves, but the angel Gabriel, the innkeeper, the shepherds, the heavenly host, the three Wise Men, Herod, the star of Bethlehem, and even the animals kneeling in the straw. In one form or another we have seen them represented so often that we would recognize them anywhere. We know about the birth in all its detail as well as we know about the births of ourselves or our children, maybe more so. The manger is as familiar as home. We have made a major production of it, and as minor attractions we have added the carols, the tree, the presents, the cards. Santa Claus, Ebenezer Scrooge, and so on. With Easter it is entirely different.
The Gospels are far from clear as to just what happened. It began in the dark. The stone had been rolled aside. Matthew alone speaks of an earthquake. In the tomb there were two white-clad figures or possibly just one. Mary Magdalen seems to have gotten there before anybody else. There was a man she thought at first was the gardener. Perhaps Mary the mother of James was with her and another woman named Joanna. One account says Peter came too with one of the other disciples. Elsewhere the suggestion is that there were only the women and that the disciples, who were somewhere else, didn’t believe the women’s story when they heard it. There was the sound of people running, of voices. Matthew speaks of “fear and great joy.” Confusion was everywhere. There is no agreement even as to the role of Jesus himself. Did he appear at the tomb or only later? Where? To whom did he appear? What did he say? What did he do?
It is not a major production at all, and the minor attractions we have created around it — the bunnies and baskets and bonnets, the dyed eggs — have so little to do with what it’s all about that they neither add much nor subtract much. It’s not really even much of a story when you come right down to it, and that is of course the power of it. It doesn’t have the ring of great drama. It has the ring of truth. I f the Gospel writers had wanted to tell it in a way to convince the world that Jesus indeed rose from the dead, they would presumably have done it with all the skill and fanfare they could muster. Here there is no skill, no fanfare. They seem to be telling it simply the way it was. The narrative is as fragmented, shadowy, incomplete as life itself. When it comes to just what happened, there can be no certainty. That something unimaginable happened, there can be no doubt.
The symbol of Easter is the empty tomb. You can’t depict or domesticate emptiness. You can’t make it into pageants and string it with lights. It doesn’t move people to give presents to each other or sing old songs. It ebbs and flows all around us, the Eastertide. Even the great choruses of Handel’s Messiah sound a little like a handful of crickets chirping under the moon.
He rose. A few saw him briefly and talked to him. If it is true, there is nothing left to say. If it is not true, there is nothing left to say. For believers and unbelievers both, life has never been the same again. For some, neither has death. What is left now is the emptiness. There are those who, like Magdalen, will never stop searching it till they find his face.
~Frederick Buechner, originally published in Whistling in the Dark
Hallelujah! Sure, we’ll get dressed up and go to church and cook a big brunch and set the table with the good china. But let’s just take a moment, shall we?
And this is interesting–C.S. Lewis admired this play by Dorothy Sayers so much that he re-read it every year during Holy Week. (He re-read things too.) I have never read it, but I think I will.
God was executed by people painfully like us, in a society very similar to our own…by a corrupt church, a timid politician, and a fickle proletariat led by professional agitators.
–Dorothy Sayers
Happy Easter. Christ is risen indeed.
(The painting is The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection by the Swiss artist Eugène Burnand, 1898.)
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
–1 Corinthians 15: 12-22
I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. Mine was full of church and family, just the way I like it. We went to church on Good Friday and on Easter Sunday. On Easter Saturday daughter #1 and I sat out on the patio in the sunshine and then we listened to some Talking Heads. The OM got Mexican takeout and then we watched Ben-Hur (1959)–part one.
The weather was not so great on Easter Sunday–rainy and chilly–so we had an egg hunt inside after church, and that was okay. Flexibility is key.
We played with some old toys and with a new toy…
Jesus and the 12 pescadores de hombres
…and ate a lot of jelly beans…
We also ate a delicious meal…
on a lovely table…
While eating, we were reminiscing about the Good Friday tornado in 2011 and Lottie interrupted saying, ‘A tornado?! Tornados are hot air and cold air meeting and swirling around.”
I said, “How do you know that?!”
She said, “We watched a video at school.” Table conversation is always interesting at our house!
Here we are reading one of the wee laddie’s favorite book, “Weapons of WWII.” He’s a real chip off the old block.
We also FaceTimed with daughter #2 and heard all about their egg hunt…
All the egg hunting reminded me of the year long past–around the time we moved to our house in the early nineteen-sixties when I was about the twins’ age–when my older brother (about 10 or 11 at the time) staged an Easter egg hunt for our parents. He surmised that they might appreciate searching for the eggs for once. I’m sure my father was non-plussed but I’m sure my mother was touched. My DP and I probably wondered, “What about us?” It’s funny the things you remember in your dotage.
Sunday night we watched Ben-Hur–part two.
The perfect way to wrap up a great weekend.
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone [a]from the door, and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. Mine was exhausting! SO much social activity after weeks, months, a year of not much going on.
I was busy on Friday getting ready for Saturday.
Mimosas are a good start to any party.
Liz got emotional opening daughter #1’s handmade baby blankets. After a yummy lunch (chicken salad, of course) we sat outside in the sun and watched the wee babes frolic on the driveway. After her husband picked Liz up and daughter #3 went home with the babes, we went to pick up margaritas at Club Taco. We finished Ben Hur, which we had started the night before.
On Easter morning we got up early and went to the 8:00 am service at an actual church. It felt great to sit in a pew again and sing hymns. God-honoring worship with the Word of God faithfully preached and the Lord’s Supper celebrated was much appreciated. It will take awhile to get used to not kneeling and to drinking grape juice at communion, but I think I can manage.
When we got home, I made Episcopal Souffle (ironic, yes) and then the boy and his family came over. The babes opened their Easter baskets.
Daughter #1 gave the wee laddie a book on Porsches (estate sale find), which he opened to squeals of joy. He carried it around for the rest of the day.
Note the book in back of the Cooper (ingenious)
We had a super fun egg hunt.
Once again we sat on the driveway in the glorious sun and watched the world bicycle/drive/stroll by. Two days of beautiful spring weather and a little social interaction can do wonders for one’s spirits.
And now it’s Monday. What the…
“Make no mistake: if he rose at all It was as His body; If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit, The amino acids rekindle, The Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers, Each soft spring recurrent; It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the Eleven apostles; It was as His flesh; ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes The same valved heart That—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then regathered Out of enduring Might New strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence, Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded Credulity of earlier ages: Let us walk through the door.”
Well, Good Friday is here. Let’s all take a moment.
Am I a stone, and not a sheep, That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross, To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee; Not so fallen Peter, weeping bitterly; Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon Which hid their faces in a starless sky, A horror of great darkness at broad noon – I, only I.
Yet give not o’er, But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; Greater than Moses, turn and look once more And smite a rock.
Christina Rosetti
Tonight we will watch Ben Hur (1959) up to the intermission, finishing tomorrow. It’s a good tradition.
On Saturday we are having a wee luncheon for one of daughter #1’s friends from college who has moved to our flyover city. She is expecting twins, so we thought we would introduce her to our twins– a glimpse of Things To Come.
Remember?
Daughter #1 and I are going to church on Sunday–for the first time in a year I am somewhat ashamed to say. I have been worshipping–if you can rightly call it that–by visiting churches online for the past year and by listening to online sermons. It is far from the same thing, however, and we all need to get back on track. We will be visiting a new church, a Presbyterian Church. We’ll see how it goes.
Sunday is also our pater’s birthday. He would be 99! To have been born in 1922 doesn’t seem that long ago, but it is!
ANC III was a lifelong Episcopalian with a Monica-like mother who I’m sure prayed mightily for his salvation. Whether her prayers were answered, I have no idea. But I will lift a toast to him on Sunday and sigh deeply. I hardly knew ye.
In other news, our neighbors across the street were TP’d overnight. (I never heard a thing.) Kind of a lame attempt, really, and such a shocking waste of toilet paper!
And on a week night! Zut alors. I am reminded again that some things never change.
Have a blessed weekend.
Almighty God, who through your only‑begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life‑giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
BCP
*He is risen from the grave
(The window is in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Key West, FL.)
Today is Good Friday and I am taking the day off. Yes, I am still home–where else would I be?–but I am not checking my work email and reading spreadsheets or attending Zoom meetings. I will try to focus on the day, starting with John 13: 31–18:1 and moving on through the readings of the day. We’ll see how far I get.
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15)
Today is also the birthday of Lew Wallace (April 10, 1827 – February 15, 1905)…
…Civil War General, Governor of the territory of New Mexico when it was quite a hotspot, and author of Ben-Hur. I will toast him tonight as I watch Ben-Hur (1959), which as you know, is a Good Friday tradition in my family.
Also I will note that tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Michael Curtiz died in 1962. He was an amazing director, one of the best. He was “the classic example of a studio director in that he could turn his hand to almost anything. He could go from any genre to another, and somehow this Hungarian knew exactly how those genres worked.” (film historian David Thomson)
From Captain Blood (1935) to The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) to The Santa Fe Trail (1939) to Casablanca (1941) to Mildred Pierce (1945) to Life With Father (1947) to White Christmas (1954) and King Creole (1958)–you can’t go wrong. Here’s a list of his impressive filmography.
Curtiz didn’t direct any religious or biblical epics, but he did direct The Egyptian (1954) which was based on an international best seller by Mika Waltari published in the 1940s. I might have to check it out.
Have a blessed Easter. Celebrate it in whatever way makes your heart sing! Even if it’s just on your computer, celebrate it! Eat some Episcopal soufflé, pop the prosecco and watch Ben-Hur! Alleluia, Christ is risen indeed.
“O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
“GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD,” John writes, “that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only son even to this obscene horror; so loved the world that in some ultimately indescribable way and at some ultimately immeasurable cost he gave the world himself. Out of this terrible death, John says, came eternal life not just in the sense of resurrection to life after death but in the sense of life so precious even this side of death that to live it is to stand with one foot already in eternity. To participate in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ is to live already in his kingdom. This is the essence of the Christian message, the heart of the Good News, and it is why the cross has become the chief Christian symbol. A cross of all things—a guillotine, a gallows—but the cross at the same time as the crossroads of eternity and time, as the place where such a mighty heart was broken that the healing power of God himself could flow through it into a sick and broken world. It was for this reason that of all the possible words they could have used to describe the day of his death, the word they settled on was “good.” Good Friday.
– Frederick Buechner, The Faces of Jesus
Have a blessed Easter weekend. Go to church!
We will celebrate with our little family at church, brunch and with peeps.
–Thomas Aquinas, translated from Latin to English by Edward Caswall and the compilers of Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861
(The Crucifixion stained glass window by J. Gordon Guthrie, Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, New York City)
It was a busy weekend and I feel like the wee laddie (above) at church–overstimulated and worn out.
I don’t want to give you the wrong idea though–It was a joyful and fun weekend. Daughter #1 and I managed to fit in an estate sale, margaritas, and watching Ben-Hur (1959) in its entirety. We enjoyed Ben-Hur immensely as always. Traditions are a great thing and I encourage you to start your own movie-watching ones. Teach your children (and grandchildren) to sit and pay attention to movies–I fear this is fast becoming a lost art.
We toasted Yakima Canutt, did you?
I made Episcopal Soufflé, a family favorite, for Easter brunch (because that’s what the boy always requests) and it was a crowd pleaser. The wee babes liked it too. They are little Episcopalians in the making, I tell you.
Now it is back to the salt mines and the start of a busy week. And, oh yes, did I mention a winter weather advisory?
Meanwhile the 
dual personalities 