Valerie Hess

I offer this prayer from an unknown source: Save me from haste and confusion, from wrongful desire, and the net of evil.

Amen!

In many churches, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is called “Good Shepherd Sunday” as the Psalm appointed for the day is the 23rd and the Gospel talks about Jesus being the Good Shepherd. The New Testament Reading in some years is the section in Revelation where the Lamb is praised.

This Psalm is used at so many funerals it has taken on an almost hushed tone in many people’s minds. I believe that one way to read it is as a statement of victory in the “war won/battles still happening” reality of the Christian faith. I find that proclaiming it rather than praying it gives me a new perspective on the familiar words.

What do you think?

But it’s Easter, you say; we want to talk about feasting, not fasting. OK, I agree. In fact, our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters forbid fasting the week after Easter as a sign that the long Lenten fast is over for them.

In reality, we can’t talk realistically about fasting without also understanding feasting. God commanded times of feasting in the Old Testament: the Passover, the Feast of Booths, etc. These were times when all of Israel was to make sure everyone, including the poor, had a feast to celebrate God’s goodness.

So as we are celebrating the Resurrection, let us look at fasting from the angle of feasting. Let us:

fast from complaining and feast on gratitude
fast from bad health choices and feast on healthy food and exercise
fast from gossip and feast on lifting others up
fast from hoarding and feast on generosity
fast from mindless, soul-numbing activities and entertainment and feast on creativity
fast from having to be first and feast on serving others
fast from anger and feast on forgiveness
fast from hatred and feast on love

I look forward to hearing what fast/feast ideas you will add to the list.
Blessed Easter (a seven-week celebration)

Since it is Holy Week, I am inviting everyone to fast from all extraneous food and activity.

I am not saying fast for the week but consider eating half of what you would normally until Easter Vigil/Easter morning.

Do what you have to do but pare down extra entertainment and unnecessary shopping, limit media use (including phone use), and use the time for extra Bible reading and/or prayer.

Also, go to church on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, (Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil) as well as Easter Day itself. If your faith community doesn’t offer services on those days, find one that does.

It is interesting to me that Europe, not considered a bastion of Christianity any more, still shuts down for Good Friday (sometimes closing early on Maundy Thursday) and STAYS CLOSED DOWN through Easter Sunday. (In some countries, Easter Monday is a holiday, too.)

How many people in this country aren’t exactly sure when Easter even is? As a witness to these people and to the children in your circle of influence, make Holy Week a different kind of week. Walk fully with Jesus from Palm Sunday through the Last Supper, and Crucifixion. Sit on Holy Saturday with the distraught disciples, who nevertheless still kept the Law and stayed home rather than running back to the tomb to “finish up–God will understand.” (Think what they might have missed if they had gone back on Saturday, in violation of the Discipline of the Sabbath, and then not needed to go on Sunday!) Rise with anticipation for the Easter Vigil/Easter morning services a new creation in Christ yourself.

Fast from North American culture this week and Feast on the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven.

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