Carl DeLine

Easter Online

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Day one, Week sixteen, Year 2017

Easter 1978 I was laying the hospital bed. My wife brought some clothes. I was convinced I would go to worship. I got out of bed, walked five feet to a chair. Tears came to my eyes as I knew I was now shut in and shut out at the same time. Thank you for joining me here as this becomes a worship experience for both shut ins and shut outs.

Please read the following Scripture: Acts 10:34-43 or Jeremiah 31:1-6 • Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 • Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43 • John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10

Adding favorite Easter Music:

“Christ the Lord is Risen Today”
“Hallelujah (Easter Version)”
“Because He Lives”

Opening Prayer:

Lord, God, we, I am grateful for one more Easter, one more resurrection celebration. Today is more then a religious experience it has become a physical victory. How many times is this real. It is new each moment of every day. Lead us all in this Worship. May our experiences, our hopes and joys lift us into your arms. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Meditation:

Secularism
Syncretism
Soul food

Come on, preacher man, get serious! It’s Easter time. Lighten up! Time to eat chocolate eggs, make colored hard boiled eggs, listen to majestic music and watch uncle Eggbert and aunt Harriet fall asleep on the sofa.

Each week in my coaching work I ask people to consider random words and apply them to the day or situation being faced. Today is Easter, yet many Christians have opted out of the word saying it no longer has meaning. The resurrection celebration is a newer term and more true to the intention of the day.

Then there is sarcoidosis.

What does it mean to be a purest? What does it mean to say the word, to describe it for what it is or what it has become. Ask many if not most people and they will tell you they know what Easter is all about. Yet listen to the words and you would think these people came from different universes. The same is true for sarcoidosis. There are those who will articulate, indeed pontificate as if the words rolling from their lips were nothing but truth. Then listen more closely to everyone, you will wonder if we all came from the same worlds..

When we talk about carrying out some form of identifiable behavior, it is here WWIII breaks out. Who has the right to define behavior, how it is carried out and indeed what can be seen as legitimate expectations from others? What is an acceptable normal goal for life itself?

Syncretism is often the melting together of different subcultures. Religion, whether it is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or another creates a set of standards and expectations. The teaching about how people live today (or try) can be visualized in the immigration scenario as complete subcultures move around the world. Since starting this active discussion on sarcoidosis subcultures, this group has added people from the majority of countries.

Today we struggle with words about a lot of things. What was known for many years as the Easter event was intended to speak not just historically, but also “theologically,” saying death, burial and resurrection. Perhaps it is time to apply that understanding to sarcoidosis as well. Sarcoidosis will test us, challenge us to the core. Once parts of us die new parts rise from the dust. A new life, a new person arises, not once but many times.

It is here we then understand our new sense of calling. Our soul will be fed with the basics, with the essentials, separating us from the trivial. The Resurrection Celebration then takes on a significant meaning for all of us.

I hope you have had a day of resurrection and new life. Amen.

Third Day “Soul On Fire”

Your Prayer: Please add a simple sentence prayer sharing your thoughts, hopes in your new life!