Resurrect us with resurrection power

/ Eric Mathews / 1 Comment

Icon of the Resurrection, Bulgarian Icon, via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0

 
We pray that this Easter there will be a brand new beginning for all of us.
Grant that our ugly pasts will be buried
  and that we might arise in the newness of life
  as new people who are making a fresh and a genuine new commitment
  to walk with the risen Christ.
May the risen Christ save lost souls, convert us sinners, and teach us
  that we are no longer captives to the sins which bind and blind us.
Have mercy on the sick and suffering.
Heal those who are physically, mentally, and spiritually sick.
Comfort the bereaved and grief-stricken.
Empty out tombs of despair, discouragement, and defeat.
Resurrect us with resurrection power.
Raise us to new levels of powerful and victorious living.
Bless the preaching of your Holy Word.
Burn our altars of prayer with the fire of the Holy Ghost.
Give us the boldness to tell the world that Jesus, our savior, is not dead
  but the living Lord of history.
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.

J. Alfred Smith, Sr, 1931-2025, African American Pastor in California

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Romans 6:8-11

And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 
We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, 
    and he will never die again. 
Death no longer has any power over him.  
When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. 
But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 
So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin 
    and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
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Question

How can the resurrection of Jesus give you power to face your everyday challenges?

Easter Prayer of Gregory the Great

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Resurrection, Luca Giordano via Wikimedia Commons

 
It is only right, with all the powers of our heart and mind,
    to praise You Father and Your Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear Father, by Your wondrous condescension of Loving-Kindness
    toward us, Your servants, You gave up Your Son.
Dear Jesus You paid the debt of Adam for us to the Eternal Father
    by Your Blood poured forth in Loving-Kindness.
You cleared away the darkness of sin
    by Your magnificent and radiant Resurrection.
You broke the bonds of death and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.
You reconciled Heaven and earth.
Our life had no hope of Eternal Happiness before You redeemed us.
Your Resurrection has washed away our sins,
    restored our innocence and brought us joy.
How inestimable is the tenderness of Your Love!

We pray You, Lord, to preserve Your servants
    in the peaceful enjoyment of this Easter happiness.
We ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord,
    Who lives and reigns with God The Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
    forever and ever.

Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540 – 604) of Rome, Patron Saint of Teachers
source
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1 Peter 1:3-4
 
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again
    to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 
    to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, 
    kept in heaven for you.
 
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Questions

What significance does the resurrection of Jesus make in your life?
What difference does Jesus’ resurrection make in your relationships?

Jesus, remember me

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​The Thieves Legs Are Broken, James Tissot, Wikimedia Commons
 
Jesus, each of us is both the thief who blasphemes
    and the one who believes.
I have faith, Lord, help my lack of faith.
I am nailed to death, there is nothing I can do
    but cry out: ‘Jesus, remember me
        when you come with your kingdom.’

Jesus, I know nothing, I understand nothing,
    in this horrific world.
But you, you come to me, with open arms,
    with open heart,
    and your presence alone is my paradise.
Ah, remember me
    when you come with your kingdom.

Glory and praise to you, you who welcome
    not the healthy but the sick,
you whose unexpected friend is a criminal
    cut off by the justice of men.
Already you are going down to hell and setting free
    those who cry out to you:
“Remember us, Lord,
    when you come with your kingdom.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, b. 1940, Archbishop of Constantinople
Prayers Encircling the World: An International Anthology
 
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Luke 23:39-43 

One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed,
    “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—
      and us, too, while you’re at it!”
But the other criminal protested, 
    “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 
     We deserve to die for our crimes, 
    but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
And Jesus replied, 
    “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

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Question

In what ways are you like both thieves who were crucified alongside Jesus?

Why have you forsaken me?

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Crucifixion, by Graham Sutherland, London 1963
 
Lord,
you were not only tempted for forty days down by the Jordan
but constantly all through your ministry.
 
Not to obvious blatant sins
but to the subtler deflections from the Father’s will;
to cunning compromise which would defeat the Father’s purpose.
 
As when the presence of the seeking Greeks
suggested the possibility of a wider mission
in which you might have been listened to and welcomed,
without the necessity of the cross.
 
As when in the Garden of Olives across the valley,
you wrestled with the doubt that death could be the Father’s will.
 
Or when, in the presence of Pilate
you might have pleaded your case with your accusers;
or in those fiercest moments of pain,
acquiesced to the mocking cry of the crowd to
    ‘Come down from the cross and we will believe,’
 
Until one temptation remained –
the final test, the last claim of love,
the fiercest attack of evil –
more subtle and shattering than the rest,
when, cloaked in a blanket of darkness
came the whispering doubt:
    What if God too has forsaken you?
 
And at last, the battle done, the last temptation met,
faith complete, the task finished, evil defeated,
love triumphant, you said:
    ‘Father into your hands I commend my spirit –
    the rest lies with you, Father, dear Father.’
 
And then it was that by the cross with its limp body
there must surely have sounded the voice from heaven
    once more:
    ‘This is my beloved Son.’
    Son in call,
    Son in obedience,
    Son in love
    Son in death and in triumphant life.
 
George Appleton, 1902 – 1993, Anglican Bishop in England and Jerusalem
The Oxford Book of Prayer

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Luke 23:44-46 
 
It was now about noon,
    and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,
    for the sun stopped shining.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Jesus called out with a loud voice,
    “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
When he had said this, he breathed his last.


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Questions

How can you see the crucifixion of Jesus as his ultimate triumph?

The New Commandment

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Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples, Unknown author c. 1210, Wikimedia Commons
 
Jesus, you gave us the new command to love each other
    just as you loved your disciples.
We are eager to imitate you in loving our brothers and sisters, but like Peter,
    our efforts are often more words and good intentions
        than action and sacrifice…
We want to offer ourselves fully in friendship
    but when the relationship becomes costly we disengage.
We want to reach out to those different from ourselves
    but tend to stay within our safe routines.
And when relationships lead to hurt or betrayal
    we withdraw to protect ourselves
    and fail to keep your commandment.
You know this about us.
You know that we are weak and made of dust.
 
Oh, pour out an extra measure of faith upon us!
Empower us with the supernatural ability to love 
    just as you loved.
 
But more than that, bless our flawed, timid expressions
    and communicate them through your Holy Spirit,
    so that those who we begin to love,
    know that, in fact, they are loved
    completely
    by you
just as you loved your disciples, and us, unto the end.
 
Eric Mathews
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John 13:1, 34
 
It was just before the Passover Festival.
Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.
Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
 
A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  
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Questions

When have you experienced the love of Jesus through another person?
Who is someone you can show the love of Jesus to?

Come and wash my feet

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The Washing of the Feet, Pierre-Paul Rubens, via Wikimedia Commons
 
​Jesus, my feet are dirty.

Come and slave for me;
  pour your water into your basin
  and come and wash my feet.

I am overbold, I know, in asking this,
but I dread what you threatened when you said:
  ‘If I do not wash your feet,
  it means you have no companionship with me.’

Wash my feet, then, because I do want to have
  companionship with you.

Origen, c.185—254, Alexandrian Theologian
2000 Years of Prayer

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John 13:5-8

He poured water into a basin.
Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet,
  drying them with the towel he had around him.
When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him,
  “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”
“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”
Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

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Question

 
What are some of the heart attitudes you’ve had 
    where you needed to be forgiven 
    and restored to a right relationship with God?
 

overturning the tables

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Christ Driving the Money Changers out of the Temple, Valentin de Boulogne, via Wikimedia Commons
 
Truth be told, Jesus,
There are lots of tables that need overturning
   in our lives;
Beneath the veneer of respectability
   the tidy rows and neat regulations
      hide dark addictions and angry judgments
         hungry greeds and heartless rejections

We know the pain—and so do those around us—
   of keeping up the facade;
What a relief it would be to have it all
   upset, smashed, scattered, destroyed

So, perhaps, Jesus, today you could pay us a visit
   and help us to radically rearrange
      the furniture of our lives

Amen.
John van de Laar, South African Methodist worship minster
www.sacredise.com
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Mark 11:15-17

And they came to Jerusalem. 
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those 
    who sold and those who bought in the temple, 
    and he overturned the tables of the money-changers 
    and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 
And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 
And he was teaching them and saying to them,
  “Is it not written, 
     ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?
      But you have made it a den of robbers.”

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Question

What area of your life needs Jesus to do some radical rearranging?

Do you weep over my city?

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He wept over it by Enrique Simonet via Wikimedia Commons
 
This is my city, Lord:
I’ve flown over it,
driven around it,
walked through it,
and I love it.
Its concrete chasms, its quiet parks,
its massive buildings and its tiny houses,
its suburbs rich and poor.
But most of all, Lord, its people…
My city, Lord. Your city.
Remember, Lord, there was one city
over which you stood and wept.
Do you weep over this city?
With its hunger, its greed, its cruelty?
Its foolishness and heartbreak?
Lord, I believe you do.
 
prayer used over Belfast, Northern Ireland
A Procession of Prayers, edited by John Carden
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Luke 19:41-42 
 
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying,
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day
    the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

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Question

How can you join with God and others 
    in praying for your neighborhood, your city, your country?

To keep the road open to our hearts

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Christ Entering Jerusalem, Duccio via Wikimedia Commons
 
O God, whose dearly beloved Son
   was greeted by the crowd on Olivet
   with hallelujahs,
but who in the same week
   was mocked as he went lonely
   to the Cross,
forbid that our welcome to him should be
   in words alone.

Help us, we beg you, to keep the road open
   for him into our hearts;
and let him find there
   not another crucifixion,
but love and loyalty in which his kingdom
   may be established evermore.
Amen.

Walter Russell Bowie, 1882 – 1969, Episcopal priest from Virginia
The Westminster Collection of Christian Prayers

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Matthew 21:7-11 

They brought the donkey and the colt 
    and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, 
    while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 
The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

    “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
    “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
    “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked,
    “Who is this?”
The crowds answered,
    “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
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Question

During Holy Week, how can you worship Jesus 
    and welcome him as king into your own heart?

Grave cloths that bind me

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Resurrection of Lazarus by Henry Ossawa Tanner via Wikimedia Commons
 
Our Father in heaven, I thank you that you have led me into the light.
I thank you for sending the Savior to call me from death to life.
I confess that I was dead in sin before I heard his call,
    but when I heard him, like Lazarus, I arose.
But, O my Father, the old grave cloths bind me still.
Old habits that I cannot throw off,
    old customs that are so much part of my life
    that I am helpless to live the new life that Christ calls me to live.
Give me strength, O Father, to break the bonds;
    give me courage to live a new life in you;
    give me faith to believe that with your help I cannot fail.
And this I ask in the name of the Savior
    who has taught me to come to you.

prayer from Taiwan
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John 11:38-44 

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. 
It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 
    “Take away the stone,” he said.
    “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 
    “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”  
Then Jesus said, 
    “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. 
Then Jesus looked up and said, 
“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, 
    but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, 
    that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 
    “Lazarus, come out!”  
The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, 
    and a cloth around his face.  
Jesus said to them, 
    “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

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Questions

What experiences from your past still bind you 
    and prevent you from following God as you know you should?