We will hear Luke’s account of Easter as we worship together Sunday. Luke 24 is an all-day account. It begins with the women going to the tomb at early dawn and ends after dinner back in the upper room. We will hear as the men of the disciple band consider the women’s story of an empty tomb and an angel message that “He is not here, he has risen” to be an idle tale. And we will watch and listen in as a disciple named Cleopas and his friend decide to leave Jerusalem, get out of town, return to a normal that will never be normal again. They are discouraged and speak of lost hope to a stranger they encounter along the way.

You may want to read Luke’s morning to evening account of that first Easter. Continue reading →

Hallmark Cards is in business to make money. They do it by selling cards and over the years their cards have tended to be the best around. In order to sell cards you have offer your customers what they want. So it says more about us, probably, than about Hallmark when you visit their stores and website looking for an Easter card.

Hallmark is selling 126 different Easter cards this year. When I looked, I initially decided  to limit my search to the “faith” category. Of the 126 Easter cards that are available, 15 are “faith” cards, 8 e-cards and 7 paper cards. I looked at them all. I won’t be buying a single one. They aren’t Easter cards, they are “happy ending cards.”

One of the faith cards offers that “Maybe God put Easter in spring to remind us that miraculous things happen when we do nothing more than open ourselves up to him.” What a waste, that death on a cross. If only Jesus had done nothing more than open himself to God. Continue reading →

The new pope has decided to be called Francis, Francisco in his native Spanish. Turns out the odds makers hadn’t much considered the possibility. You could have gotten 33:1 odds on Jorge Mario Bergoglio being the new pope, but no one was even considering Francis. The church, Catholic, Presbyterian or otherwise, lives by “we’ve always done it that way,” and in 266 previous papacies no one had done Francis. Maybe this is a good sign.

There’s not always been a name change when a person becomes pope. But it’s been that way for a long time. Long enough to count as always having done it that way. So they’ve “always done it that way,” and there is something nice about the tradition. By his new name the new pope says declares  his hopes for his leadership of the church.

By all accounts, Francis the pope is a humble man, modest and kind. He picked Francis after Saint Francis, a humble man, modest and kind (who we love to misquote). Continue reading →

Like many Americans, I have given up on a printed newspaper, but it doesn’t mean I’m not a news junky. All the worse as Google News takes me to headlines around the world every day. I’ve been thinking especially about two headlines from the past week. First, this from the Washington Post on Monday, “Joe Flacco says new contract was about respect, not money.” And then this on Tuesday in the UK’s The Telegraph: Hugo Chavez is ‘clinging to Christ and life’ as breathing gets worse. Continue reading →

According to the headline, people living in Hawaii are the happiest in the nation and those in West Virginia are the least happy.  Pennsylvanians are just a bit less happy than most Americans, though by holding down spot #29 on the list we’re happier than we were last year when we were #31.  We are just slightly happier than our friends in New Jersey. If you live in Lancaster, you’re the happiest of all Pennsylvanians and those of us in Philadelphia tend to be happier than those in Pittsburgh. Oh, and by the way, those of us in the Eighth Congressional district are happier than those in any other PA district. That’s what the poll says. Continue reading →