Tag: Easter

Reading as Prayer through Lent & Easter: a book (p)review

We are nearing the beginning of Lent. I love this season! I find the preparatory seasons of the church calendar (Lent and Advent) great times to press into devotional practices which are difficult for me the rest of the time. Wednesday, I will find a church service to attend so I can get the Face-palm of Death (AKA the Imposition of Ashes). I will fast. I will engage spiritual disciplines. This season is sacred time and I enter in eager to see what God will do in me. 

between-midnight-and-dawnOne of my conversation partners this Lent will be Between Midnight and Dawn: A Literary Guide for  Prayer for Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide (Paraclete Press, 2016),  compiled by Sarah Arthur). This is one of three devotionals Arthur has edited following the church calendar (also: At the Still Point: a Literary Guide for Prayer in Ordinary Time, and Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer For Advent, Christmas and Epiphany). At the Still Point was the only one of these devotionals I have read any of before, though my Ordinary Time resolve is nowhere near as resolute as my Lenten devotion.

Between Midnight and Dawn pairs suggested weekly Scripture readings with prayers, poetry and fiction readings. There are seven readings for each week of Lent—six poems and one piece of fiction. During Holy Week and Triduum, there are scriptures and 5-7 literary selections for each day, before returning to the weekly format of Scriptures, poetry, and fiction for each week of Eastertide.

The poems and fiction are selected to lead us deeper into the land of Prayer. Arthur suggests reading this literature, applying aspects of lectio divina—lectio (reading), meditatio (reading it again, several more times, slowly), oratio (paying attention to words and phrases) and contemplatio (shifting our focus to God’s presence, p.13). Certainly, this takes a little bit of time. The story sections are longer (because ‘fiction doesn’t work its magic right away’), so Arthur suggests saving the story for a day of the week when we have time to just focus on the story.

Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter (Plough Publishing. 2002) is a similar sort of devotional, using literature as a way into this liturgical season. Arthur’s selection is different in that she is more focused on reading literature as an act of prayer, and the scriptural readings (absent from Bread and Wine) give focus to daily practice.

As of yet, I haven’t really read the book, only scanned the selections, the poems and stories selected.  Arthur has chosen both contemporary and eminent voices from the past.  Poets like Hopkins, Donne, Rosetti, Herbert, Tennyson but also those like Luci Shaw, Katherine James, Scott Cairns, John Fry, Tania Runyan). There are stories from Buechner, Chesterton, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, George Macdonald. There are some favorite poets and poems I am surprised to not see here, but I am interested to read the ones which Arthur has chosen. I am excited to journey with poets and storytellers on my Lenten journey

Notice of material connection: I received a copy of this book from Paraclete Press for the purposes of review.

If you would like to get a copy for yourself for Lent you can purchase it from

Paraclete Press

Amazon (also available on Kindle)

Barnes & Noble

or wherever fine books are sold.

 

The Cross and the KEEP OUT SIGN: a ★★★★★ kids’ book review

I am a father of four kids eight and under. So I read to them a lot. As far as religious kids’ books, I like books that tell the old, old story well in a way that is both  age appropriate and compelling. The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross is a great book. It gives kids age five to eight (my test group) a big picture sense of why Jesus died and rose again. Author Carl Laberton tells a story which is accessible for my kids and true to scripture. His story is beautifully illustrated by Catalina Echeverri’s stunning illustrations. On the first day I got this book, I already read it several times with my kids. It opened up a great conversation with my eight year old about what the Bible tells about sin and we loved talking about what was happening in the pictures.

t5garden_medium3d-g7wvjnz5osg52qzrnorvrq67frvh6m4zHere is a brief synopsis of the book [spoiler alert]: It begins in the garden where there was nothing bad, ever and there was no one sad. . . ever. And best of all God was there. Unfortunately the people did a terrible thing and decided they wanted a world without God in charge. Because of their sin, God sent them out of the garden and put warrior angels in front of it like a big KEEP OUT sign. People still kept sinning because they didn’t want God in charge.  God wanted to remind people how wonderful it was to live with him, so he had his people build a temple. In the center of the temple was the wonderful place where God was. But around that wonderful place was a curtain with pictures of warrior angels—God’s big keep out sign telling them that because of their sin, they couldn’t come in. After hundreds of years God sent his son as a person (Jesus) to open the way to God’s wonderful place. The people put Jesus on a cross. Jesus took all our sin—the bad things we do and the sad things they cause—and the curtain in the temple tore in two signalling God’s wonderful place was open again. Jesus rose three days later and welcomed all who trust in him back to God’s wonderful place.

I like this book a lot and my kids all liked it. It is a perfect book to explore the meaning of Easter with kids. Another plus for the book is that Jesus isn’t depecited as another blond haired messiah. He has dark hair and some color. The final pages depict the post-resurrection Jesus with bright face with a glowing white hair and beard nd a golden sash (see Revelation 1:13-16).I give this book high points for biblical and theological accuracy but it was the art work that initially grabbed me.  Below, illustrator Catalina Echeverri reads the story alongside her illustrations. This will give you something of a taste of what to expect. I give this book five stars. ★★★★★

Note: I received this book from the Good Book Company via Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for my honest review.

 

 

God is For Us: a Lent Review

The season of Lent starts in a week. If you are hoping to find a good Lent devotional, one of the best on the market is God For Us (Paraclete: 2013).  I used it as my primary devotional a couple of years ago and referred to it throughout the Lenten season last year. The book has a poet or spiritual writer give a week’s worth of daily devotions. Contributers include: Scott Cairns, Kathleen Norris, Richard Rohr, Luci Shaw, James Schaap and Lauren Winner. Beth Bevis’s historical articles on the celebration of Lent and various feast days punctuate the text Ronald Rolheiser, OMI writes the introduction and all of this was assembled under Greg Pennoyer and Gregory Wolfe’s editorial eyes (both of Image Journal).

god-for-us-reader-s-edition-rediscovering-the-meaning-of-lent-and-easter-25
God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter (Paraclete 2016)

For this Lenten season, Paraclete has just released the readers God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter – Reader’s Edition. The book’s text is the same as the previous edition; however the earlier edition was sort of a coffee table book, with glossy pages full of art. The Reader’s Edition is a simple paperback with french flaps. While I absolutely loved the beauty of the previous edition, this is somewhat more practical and user friendly. I felt guilty about underlining and making notes in the original edition (I still did it) because it was such a pretty book. The Reader’s Edition doesn’t contain the art or the glossy pages and is more portable.

However, I did notice one small error unique to this edition. Page 35 of my copy, mistakenly attributes the entry to the late Richard John Neuhaus (I have a review copy, so I may be looking at a proof copy). My guess is that this a typographical error. Neuhaus contributed to the companion volume God With Us: Readings For Advent and Christmas which Paraclete also published a reader’s edition of, late last year. I checked that page of the devotional because I remembered that the lectionary readings for that day (First Sunday of Lent) didn’t correlate to the passages that Richard Rohr discussed in his devotion. They still don’t.

This doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the overall text. This devotional stands apart for its ecumenical spirit–bringing together an impressive list of Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox (Cairns) spiritual writers. the devotions vary, but they are all quality.  If you are looking for a devotional that will deepen your experience and appreciation of the practice of Lent, this is perhaps the best one out there. Bevis’s contributions give this a historical rootedness often missing from devotional literature.  I give this edition 4.5 stars.

Note: I received this book from Paraclete Press in exchange for my honest review.

P.S.–This devotional is also available from Paraclete with a companion CD of Easter themed Gregorian chant. I have not listened to the CD, but I have been impressed with Paraclete’s collection of sacred music and see how popping this CD in as you read the book will help mark sacred time.

It is Friday but Saturday’s Coming (and also Sunday): a book review

A. J. Swoboda wrote A Glorious Dark about three days. The Friday we call good when Jesus died on the cross, Sunday when Jesus surprised everyone by refusing to be dead and the Saturday in between ( ‘awkward Saturday’)–a day of silence when defeat appears complete and we are full of doubt and questions. The fancy-shmancy word for these days is Triduum,the last three days of Holy Week. Many denominations and spiritualities major in one of these three days. Friday people enter into suffering and loss. Saturday people allow space for doubt, questions and deconstruction. Sunday people are the clappy,happy people who emphasize blessing. Swoboda sees a problem when Christians treating any one day as though it is the total Christian vision and experience, “We need both Friday and Sunday, not just one or the other. Some want to suffer with Jesus; others want to be resurrected with Jesus. Few Desire both. We can’t prefer one day and reject the rest” (5).

So instead Swoboda takes these three days, the last three days of Holy Week, and treats them as a comprehensive vision (though not exhaustive) of Christian spirituality. The book’s fifteen chapters are organized under the broad headings of the days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), each giving a ‘glimpse of that day.’  On Friday, we reflect on Christ’s cross and in it see both God’s great love for us, and our own need with greater clarity. The cross confronts our sinfulness, our personal need for a Father, our addictions and apathy. In its place we see God’s lavish love and welcome. We also see Jesus so identify with the struggles of humanity that for the briefest of moments on the cross, he looks like an atheist. Awkward Saturday is a day of silence and rest and questioning. It is a day for ‘sitting, waiting and hoping.’ On that  day what Jesus built on earth and what we’ve done ourselves for God, seems very insignificant. There are reasons to question everything. Yet the questions and doubts are part of the waiting, so in the tomb we wait.Sunday is a day of surprises The same Jesus who came born of a sixteen-year-old Virgin, shocked everyone by coming out the tomb. Through Jesus’ resurrection over the grave he secured for us the victory over every power and strong hold that held us captive and He invites us to share in his life, becoming part of his resurrection community.

Swoboda weaves his theological reflections with personal narrative, pop-cultural references, and stories from his church. He is a pastor of an urban church in Portland and talks about his vocation and context throughout. He is also funny, bookish and insightful. I enjoyed these reflections and think they are appropriate not only for Holy Week (which is when I read this book), but throughout the Christian year. We are Easter people and the truths that Swoboda explores are constantly relevant.  While this book is organized around the three-day-theme, it is also more like a conversation than a tightly written treatise. The conversational tone makes it an engaging read but it also occasional made me impatient for ‘the point’ of a chapter (or kept me wondering how it related to the overall theme). But I’m not sure I’d like a pared down version of this. Swoboda is engaging (it makes me want to pull his previous book, Messy, off my shelf and actually read it). I give this book 4.5 stars.

Notice of material connection: I revieved this book from Baker Books in exchange for my honest review.

A Storied Easter: a book review

About a dozen years ago my wife and I read a little devotional called Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. It was published by Plough Publishing, the publishing arm of an intentional Christian community called the Bruderhof (also called Church Communities International). It was a wonderful collection of stories, poems, memoir and theological reflection. It remains my favorite Lenten devotional.

This year Plough Publishing has published a new book for the Easter Season: Easter Stories: Classic Tales for the Holy Season. Edited by Miriam Leblanc with beautiful woodcut illustrations by Lisa Toth, this book gathers twenty-seven stories which are related, in some sense, to Easter and Passion week. A poem and a tale from Bruderhofer, Jane Tyson Clement, opens the collection, but the theological perspectives and literary styles of what follows are diverse. There are stories that follow closely the passion narratives and Easter story (see Andre Trocme’s How Donkeys Got the Spirit of Contradiction or Clarence Jordon’s Stories from the Cotton Patch Gospel). There are stories that speak evocatively about Easter and the meaning of spiritual transformation (for example, C.S. Lewis’s ‘The Death of the Lizard’ excerpted from “The Great Divorce” or Sarah Cone Bryant’s Robert of Sicily). A few of these tales come from European folklore. Mostly these stories were penned in the Nineteenth or Twentieth Century. Vocationally the authors were novelists, dramatists, childrens’ story authors, pastors, and poets). There are Christian authors, communists and the religious unaffiliated.

As diverse at the material is, the authors and stories selected are from White Europeans (or their American descendants). There are German, Russian, English, French, Swedish, American authors. While this is a limited selection, it does reflect the context and heritage of the Bruderhof. I picture  that these are the sort of tales that they would tell their young. I had read some of the material they include here (C.S. Lewis, Tolstoy, Wangerin, etc), some authors I knew by reputation, others were unfamiliar to me.

As with all collections, I enjoyed some stories more than others. Some grabbed me, others didn’t. On the whole, however, an enjoyable collection and thought provoking. Story has a way of igniting the imagination and helping us see the meaning of things. Can’t think of a better subject matter than the Easter event. I do not think this is as strong a collection as Bread and Wine was, but it is a worthwhile and enjoyable read. Toth’s woodcuts are stunning. I give the book 3.5 stars.

Notice of Material Connection, I received this book from the publisher via Handlebar Media in exchange for my honest review.

The Resurrection in Your Life: a book review.

When Jesus hung on the cross and died for our sins, that was not the end of the story. Jesus rose from the  dead and that changed everything. Author Mike McKinley presents the case that because Jesus’ resurecction was a historical event, The Resurrection in Your Life walks through the Easter events to Pentecost in Luke-Acts. In ten short chapters, McKinley walks through ten passages which explore the meaning of Christ’s resurrection and ascension and the gift of the Spirit.

Mckinely is the pastor of Sterling Park Baptist Church in Virgina. This book grew out of a sermon series he did (143). Each chapter includes a passage from Luke or Acts, a written sermon on the passage, reflection questions and hymn lyrics which explore the theme. McKinley’s theology is traditional Baptist and Reformed leaning.

McKinley is a good communicator and I think I would enjoy listening to these as sermons. He makes judicious conclusions based on his text and relates his theme(s) to life. However, I had hoped that he would be more theological reflective on the meaning of the resurrection and its impact on our life, something similar to Eugene Peterson’s Living the Resurrection or Practicing the Resurrection. Instead these are pithy sermons based on resurrection (and ascension and Pentecost) accounts. Fine as far as they go, but  I wished for something a little more focused and a little deeper. I love that McKinley sees the integral place that the resurrection has for our salvation, I just wish he unfolded it a little more.

This is a three star book for me, but I don’t have any real criticism. I think anyone who reads this book will find points where you are challenged. I underlined several sentences in my copy. I appreciate how passionate McKinley is about how we don’t have a dead Jesus but a risen Savior. ★ ★ ★

Notice of material connection, I received this book from Cross Focused Reviews and the Good Book Company in exchange for my honest review.

Prayer for Easter 2013

We had 40 days to

prepare our hearts–

we know the story and know

the moment is coming.

 

But Your first disciples

were ill-prepared,

caught off-guard.

by the wonder

of  Your resurrection.

 

There was no spectacle

that Sunday morning.

You chose those

on the margins

to show yourself to:

women and Galilean

fishermen.  The ‘experts’

were confounded.  The crowds

did not see.

 

And we who prepare–

the ones that think we know–

miss the surprise

and the wonder

of an empty tomb,

death defeated

our King triumphant.

 

Capture our hearts

with wonder!

Fill us with your

Resurrection joy!

Death  where is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?

Jesus our King was dead, now alive!

And we with Him!