Tag: Easter

Happy Easter & YMCA Ukraine

Today on this Easter Sunday, join me in praying for YMCA Ukraine, for their faithful and brave service to their neighbors as they strive to overcome evil with good.

Today April 24 is Easter Sunday for Orthodox Christians around the world – here in Fort Wayne and in Ukraine.

What’s it mean to celebrate Easter when your nation is being brutally terrorized and violently decimated by the machines of war from your next door neighbor?

When horrific deaths mar the landscape of blasted cities, where does the courage and hope come from, that faith, hope and love can endure?

Even just briefly reflecting on how my pleasant Protestant Easter Sunday went last week compared to my fellow Ukrainian Christian’s celebrating Easter today in Kiev or Mariupol… it is humbling, it is grief-full, it is maddening really that such evil exists and devours the innocent.

What can YMCA Christians do – we who are known as the resurrection people – in the face of such madness, darkness, and violence?

Our name – “little Christ’s” implies that we are marked as such because of our loyalty, imitation, and love of Jesus, in particular how he was present to the weak and vulnerable, the innocent and the guilty, those with power and those praying for deliverance.

The YMCA has within its history a record of brave women and men who responded to the call of Christ upon their life, to serve Him through the Y as peacemakers, as mentors, as friends, as advocates for the oppressed, as allied for justice.

If you haven’t done it yet, please donate to the YMCA work in Ukraine.

Donate Today!
YUSA & YMCA World Service Check In with YMCA Europe & YMCA Ukraine

If you are a Christian in the Y, consider the call that Jesus Christ is making on your life these days: what are you doing about evil in the world, what is your Y doing about despair and violence in the world, what is your Y doing about peace and truth and reconciliation in the world, what is your Y doing about war and oppression?

It’s easy to try and avoid conflict, to keep my head down, eyes averted…until trouble comes near and then we are unprepared in spirit, mind and body. It’s hard to keep caring about our neighbors and fellow YMCA’s around the world. It’s also hard to become cynical, jaded, and hard-hearted…

Today on this Easter Sunday, join me in praying for YMCA Ukraine, for their faithful and brave service to their neighbors as they strive to overcome evil with good.

Pray for the Christians of Ukraine, that as they celebrate Easter amidst rubble and refugees, amidst terror and tyrants, that the Risen One would strengthen their spirit, that their love would breathe new life into their nation.

And today, pray for your neighbors facing darkness in your own community- and be willing to say “yes” to the call Christ is making on you to be present to those in pain, to be ready to be the hands and heart of Jesus, for all who are walking in darkness yet yearn to see a great light.

He Is Risen! Stand Firm! He Is Risen Indeed!

For twenty centuries, women and men from around the Earth somehow keep trusting in God and the resurrected Jesus Christ, a reality and mystery which still shapes how we live and love, how we hope and serve, how we care and lead in this beautiful and heart-breaking world.

That’s the empty tomb.

In Jerusalem.

Inspiring to see, to be reminded that Jesus of Nazareth was dead but is resurrected.

Why?

There’s not a simple answer.

Since it is so profound, it requires faith to grasp, and then barely.

The “why” gets at an existential and fundamental reality about the world and our participation in it with God.

Here’s how old St Paul put it to the carousing Christians in Corinth:

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn:

Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.”

/ 1Corinthians‬ ‭15:20-24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Not that this explains everything, but it unveils a take on reality that is both jarring but inspiring.

I love how he ends this chapter of the letter:

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Let nothing move you.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:58‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Clearly trusting in God and the resurrected Jesus Christ shapes how we live and love, how we hope and serve, how we care and lead in this beautiful and heart-breaking world.

For me I’m still working out what the “why” means for me – still praying and learning, still trusting, still seeking and striving, still hoping.

Stand firm. He is Risen!

faith #hope #love #pray #HeisRisen #easter #emptytomb #resurrection

Mmmm… Paczki! Happy Fat Tuesday!

It’s that time of year again, when grocers put out stacks of Paczki’s without any explanation. They just mysteriously appear, and I wonder how many people wonder – what is a paczki? Why do they show up at the end of winter? What’s the story behind the paczki? How do you even say “paczki” – putch-key? patch-key? puz-chkai?

So as you may know, today is Fat Tuesday, or more famously known as Mardi Gras. It’d be easy to think that this is a New Orleans thing, or a South American thing (where they call it Carnival). Nope, it’s a Christian thing! Surprise!

The Christian church calendar is marked by four major seasons – Advent/Christmas/Epiphany, Lent, Easter & Pentecost, and Ordinary Time. Ash Wednesday is the first day of the Lenten Season, a time of 40 days leading up to Easter (not including Sundays) where Christians fast (for a variety of reasons) from food items (often unhealthy ones) bad habits they’ve been meaning to give up, or immature attitudes towards others.

Lent was famous for fasting from all rich foods, especially meat. As the times changed, so did the restrictions,one of them being you could eat fish on Fridays as a substitute for beef (hence all the Arby’s commercials for their fish sandwiches)!

To prepare for Lent, it was important to get rid of all the banned food from the house so that you would not be tempted during the 40 days (reminiscent of Christ’s fast in the wilderness). Instead of throwing the food in the garbage, the people would have a huge feast and eat up all the banned food on the day before Lent, hence Fat Tuesday.

We live in a day where the Christian church calendar does not dictate our public lives. It barely directs the lives of some Christians. All Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter though. And most Christians say that Easter is the most important holy day, but they actually spend more time preparing and celebrating Christmas. So what’s a way to embody your value of Easter? Join the church in fasting for forty days during Lent. And how do you prepare for Lent? Celebrate Fat Tuesday!

For Fat Tuesday, eat a paczki, or have pancakes for dinner! Make them extra rich, lather them with icing, or pudding or sprinkled with your favorite candy like Reese’s Pieces and gummy bears (that’s what we do)! In England it’s called Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday!

For Ash Wednesday, let it be a fast day – maybe just stick to water and a small apple or little bit of bread and very small dinner of veggies. For Lent, pray about something the Lord may want you to give up for the season as a way to prepare for Easter. The point is to deny yourself something you enjoy, but the point of that is to make it a spiritual practice, one that uses  your craving to prompt prayerful reflection on your life with God. Let your desire for “it” be a reminder to pray for others, to be attentive to what the Lord wants you to be hungry for.

In Lent we deny ourselves. In the season of Easter and Pentecost, we start up something new, something good, something that is inspired by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and new life that comes from the Holy Spirit.

So on this Fat Tuesday, as you feast, prayerfully consider what the Lord may have you fast from. And then be praying what new thing he may want you to begin in Easter.

In the meantime, enjoy those paczki’s and pancakes!