Friday 6 April 2012

it's friday.....

......but sunday's comin'


is the slogan in a video sermon i saw in church today. i thought it was a great motif so i did some googling and found that it is one of, if not the most famous, Good Friday sermon of recent times. i guess i'm not up with trends in Christian media.

on the very first easter friday Jesus was cruelly crucified. only a week earlier Jesus had made his triumphant entry to Jerusalem and was lauded, something like a celebrity. there was an atmosphere of goodwill and generosity in Jerusalem but the crowds were fickle and in the following days we see a smorgasbord of humanity's ugliness with Jesus suffering betrayal, pain, abandonment and the results of cowardice. on friday Jesus was alone, humiliated, suffering mentally and physically before being executed.

at daybreak on sunday Jesus was alive, whole and walking in the garden. walking at daybreak is serene, life affirming, healthy and uplifting. for a Christian His new life means that all the forces of evil are defeated. it's an exciting prospect if one can cope with the admittedly mind bending metaphysics.

anyone who knows me knows that i struggle as much as anybody with some of the big ideas of Christianity, that i cant and wont try to convince anyone that there is a God, cant adequately explain suffering, dont know nearly enough to explain the contradictions of the bible and am sometimes dismayed by the church. regardless of all of that, i am happy to say that i know Jesus and wish to be like Him. the great message of easter, the overwhelming, fantastic, unbelievable story is the guiding, reassuring light of my life but some days the light is dim: i have my fridays, i watch other people suffer their fridays, sometimes it seems that it's friday 31 days a month.

today the hopeful message of easter for me was simply that sunday, day of health, serenity and life, is coming!

to all of you, i wish you a life made up of lots and lots of sundays!

13 comments:

  1. And possibly part of the task is to recognize and embrace the Sunday! Admittedly challenging when you are mired in Friday...a lovely post.

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  2. Yes... no matter how many Fridays there are, Sunday always comes. It is that faith that is the true meaning of Easter.

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  3. I could write a hundred thousand words on the reasons of the necessity of The Christ to die and live again but then they would be my words.

    The religion known as Christianity, just like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and all their various off shoots though are only the framework for understanding.

    In the Judeo/Christian texts the explanation is best explained in Isaiah and Hebrews. But in those books both say "...and God himself will teach you..."

    It's similar to your Douala training, you will graduate from it but you will only have a framework of understanding until you actually immerse your self in the work will you actually know how and why to be a complete and competent Douala. Spiritual knowledge is best acquired the same way.

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  4. leah,
    thank you!
    it's fortunate we have saturdays in the middle, like a bridge!

    bob,
    the slogan is so brilliant because it can encompass anyone at any stage of any type of faith. sundays to you, my friend.

    mark,
    you nailed it!!!
    the more i try to immerse myself in a practical life of faith the better i understand it but i doubt it will ever be easily explained in words and something tells me that as a doula i will also have times when my actions are instinctive and inexplicable but perfect for the moment.
    it's pretty exciting, all of it!

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  5. I totally agree anonymous... 100%.

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  6. Sorry to say, Kylie, that when I think of religion the first thing that always comes to mind is the thousands of people across the world who're being maimed and killed in the name of religious purity and dominance.

    I'm sure there are many individuals who live exemplary lives based on their religious beliefs but unfortunately they're not the ones we hear about.

    I do like Sundays though!

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  7. nick,
    its a shame there arent more mother theresas and matin luther king jnrs and less of the vocal agitators.

    sundays to you!

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  8. A great set of responses to this blog Kylie. It was interesting that the audio-visual used at the
    Salvation Army employed still non movie type images. The speaker was fantastic. I'm tempted to say he was Afro American. Somehow those folk are good at emotional expression via speech. Only recently I learnt the expression Abrahamic religons via Waheed Ali an Australian of Egytian ehnicity.
    I find it amusing he was educated at Wesley school Melbourne. So Judaism. Judeo-Christianity and Islam are joined. Trouble is Sundays mean little to others outside Christian observance.

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  9. Walking man. What good advice you give.

    You have obviously done the hard yards in life.

    All the very best as you march down life's parade ground

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  10. For many, the 'Sunday' does not come. I like your natural childbirth notions better... you are right I am sure, to suggest that when we muck around with natural systems we damage them. But in the damaging we learn and if we are smart enough, we adjust. I guess that is what your course is offering. Good for you!

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  11. stafford,
    this post has to be jarring for you and i'm sorry about that.

    it's pretty amazing the way we relentlessly and recklessly interfere with natural systems in the name of progress and childbirth is one area where we dont really need to interfere as often as we do.

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  12. Wonderfully written Kylie! The sun is not yet up on my Sunday and I will experience Easter with more a spirit-filled Sunday smile, than a focused religious connotation.

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  13. thanks mike!
    blessings to you

    He is Risen :)

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