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Morning Devotion for the Monday after Easter
April 21, 2025
Invitatory
But chiefly are we bound to praise thee for the glorious resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the very Paschal Lamb, who was sacrificed for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath destroyed death, and by his rising to life again hath won for us everlasting life.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Reading - John 14:1-14
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
Meditation - Rebecca Northington
In my first year of Seminary I was in a class with two faculty members, and two students. It was Called Philosophy for Theology. The one professor was an elderly and beloved font of wisdom at General Theological Seminary, and the second was his protege. She was teaching philosophy at various universities around NYC and was as much a student of humanity, eager to understand why these topics were so removed from peoples‘ day to day lives, as she was herself a wealth of knowledge. The conversations became very intimate, as we had the flexibility to get into the nitty gritty of why we study Aristotle and Augustine, Kierkegard and Barth, and how they inform us today. I vividly remember her asking me what concept I thought was most difficult for people to accept regarding the Christian story. Without hesitation I told her that it was the resurrection, and what that means for us exactly. I do not doubt that we all love Jesus on some level, and feel he offers humanity an alternative path; one that should be driven by love and forgiveness. We also like to look for direction from his parables, and hope his guidance will lead us to salvation. Just what salvation is, becomes complicated though.
I used this passage from John, as an example, and said I do not know if people truly believe that they will be reunited with Christ - how can we all be reunited with Christ at the same time? How can there be enough dwellings in his father’s house? She responded with a sly smile and said “do we have no room in our hearts for the mysteries that we cannot truly explain? It is almost like magic, that Christ can be with us all at once in such numbers, but isn’t that who Christ is? Isn’t that who God is?” We participate in a human story that is at times inexplicable and supercharged with the divine. I can think of half a dozen examples right now if I incline my heart; not the least of which is high schoolers choosing to wake up an hour early on Thursday mornings to study scripture before school. That is certainly God’s work.
For many of us this past Holy Week includes the human stages of grief and loss, betrayal and regret. We face again our own participation in the rejection of Jesus and the rejection of love. When we are brave, we recognize the contemporary implications as we consider our own passive complicity in the many crucifixions of love in our time. Jesus left us with one commandment: to love one another as he loved us. And for the most part, we fall woefully short. But Easter is not about our shortcomings, it is about God’s love for us despite them. And while I do believe the resurrection remains a mystery that many of us barely contend with, I also believe we hope for a reunion with Christ, in the house of the Lord. What exactly that looks like, I do not presume to know. Considering this reunion fills my heart in the same way that Christ’s loving sacrifice fills my heart; with gratitude and awe. I cannot explain what God’s plan is for us after death. I cannot imagine what the women felt as they gazed upon the empty tomb. But this past Friday I sat with the Palmisano family in church, and I felt the bumping movements of their two little three year olds during the solemn Good Friday service, and all I felt was love. I was reminded once again of the love that exists all around us-inexplicably, indescribably, human, divine, eternal. The empty tomb shows us that the story is not over. Nothing is as we thought it would be. God is with us, here and now, and forever. There is plenty of room for all of us in his house, we have only to follow Jesus.
Prayer
Who am I?
This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me,
these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine."
Amen
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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