Here Are Your Disciples

Friends,

It is a busy week.  It is a Holy Week.  It is a week full of a church’s organizational decisions and breathlessness about the future.  It is a week of extra worship and extra printing and extra broken hearts.  It is a week during which we remember–again–the disciples running away and our brother Jesus being charged and flogged and stripped and hung.

It is a Holy Week and in the end, it is all about the resurrection.  May it be so.

Here are Your Disciples

Lord Jesus,
here are your disciples—
Your wounded hands and feet
In the world today are ours.

At times we have been the frightened ones,
staying at a distance,
worried about our safety or our reputations.
But you come close to us,
bringing peace and challenge,
unlocking our potential
and setting us free.

At times we have been the doubting ones,
when creeds conflict
or certainty has evaded us.
But you come close
and allow us to speak our minds,
accepting us
and setting us free.

At times we have been the confused ones,
feeling far from you
with questions that don’t have answers.
So in the evening of your resurrection
we listen for your voice.

The risen Christ says to us: “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.”

As the Body of Christ, let us join [in community and let us join] hands [and let us pray that] through our fear, through our doubt, through our confusion, may we continue Jesus’ work as we travel many roads, liberated and united by the love of the Resurrected One. Amen. (from “Stages on the Way”, Iona Community, Wild Goose Worship Group—adapted)

Happy Easter Dearly Beloved, Rev. Wendy Miller Olapade/revwdmiller@comcast.net