Monthly Archives: April 2023

Monday Matters (April 24, 2023)

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The Collect for the third Sunday of Easter

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


These days, Monday Matters offers reflections on the prayers we say in church on Sunday, the collect of the day. We do this based on the conviction that praying shapes our believing, that what we pray forms us. We do this hoping that the prayers we say on Sunday will carry us through the week.

Eyes Opened

Going out on a limb here, I’m guessing that if you opened this email, you have some openness to matters of faith. So the questions on my mind, posed by the prayer we heard yesterday in church (see above): What have been the eye opening experiences for you? Was it sudden, like St. Paul getting knocked off his horse? Was it gradual like the blind man who received sight in stages (Mark 8)? How’d you come to this place this morning, spiritually speaking?

One reason we’re given the 50-day Easter season is so we can hear various resurrection stories, describing different ways people have eyes opened to the reality of the risen Christ. Mary goes to the tomb Easter morning. In her grief, she thinks Jesus is the gardener, until he says her name. Eyes opened. We heard about Thomas who wouldn’t or couldn’t see the good news of Jesus’ resurrection until he got a glimpse of his deep woundedness (and perhaps connected it with his own deep woundedness). Eyes opened. The disciples on the road to Emmaus walk along with Jesus, failing to recognize who he is. It’s the moment when he breaks the bread and blesses it (sounds like the eucharist to me) that they see that Jesus is alive. Eyes opened.

Which gives us permission to recognize the many ways that people have eyes opened to faith. The good news of our tradition, the conviction that we serve a resurrected Lord, may be hard to see. We may imagine that modern thought processes are more sophisticated than those in the early church.

But from the first days of the church, there was debate about whether any of this made sense. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church with the recognition that the good news of Jesus was either foolishness or scandal to most people in his culture.

Fast forward to Easter Day this year, the theologian and bishop N.T.Wright was interviewed in an op-ed column in the New York Times. He spoke about eyes opened to the physical resurrection of Jesus. He admits that for many people it makes no sense. He said: “Then, as now, claiming that somebody was alive again — particularly somebody who made the sort of claims that Jesus made or were made about him — was revolutionary. It was dangerous talk. So if people don’t like dangerous talk, then stay away from Easter is my advice.” The interviewer noted that we sometimes assume that skepticism is a recent phenomenon. She asked: “How would ancient Jewish audiences and Gentile audiences think about the apostles talking about the Resurrection?” Bishop Wright said: “Early Christianity was born into a world where everybody knew that its central claim was ridiculous, and the early Christians knew it themselves.”

The prayer we heard yesterday tells us that the opening of eyes is God’s work. So we start by recognizing it’s a matter of grace to come to faith. As you move through the Easter season, give thanks for the ways grace has come to you, for the people and experiences that were part of that process. Maybe find a way to tell someone about those people or experiences. No matter how long you’ve been on the spiritual journey, pray for new ways for eyes to be opened.

And know we are not passive in the process. As you offer that prayer, think about whether you are really open to having eyes opened, whether there is more comfort in keeping eyes closed. As N.T. Wright noted, eyes opened can be dangerous.

As you ask God to open your eyes, set aside some quiet time to make that holy request known. And prepare yourself for the possibility of transformation.

As I write, I’m on a plane to Israel with a group of pilgrims. I’m praying for my own eyes to be opened in new ways to the good news of the immanent, historical Jesus, the good news of the resurrected, transcendent Jesus. Please say a prayer for me in that regard. (Thanks.) And I’ll pray this Monday morning for readers, wherever they may be on the spiritual journey, that this day and season will bring eyes of faith opened in new ways to God’s redeeming work.

  • -Jay Sidebotham

Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.
Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!
Learn more in our digital brochure.

Monday Matters (April 17, 2023)

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The Collect for the second Sunday of Easter

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


These days, Monday Matters offers reflections on the prayers we say in church on Sunday, the collect of the day. We do this based on the conviction that praying shapes our believing, that what we pray forms us. We do this hoping that the prayers we say on Sunday will carry us through the week.

The Difference Easter Makes

What happens on Sunday morning is not half so important as what happens on Monday morning. In fact, what happens on Sunday morning is judged by what happens on Monday morning.

-Educator and theologian, Verna Dozier

The collect we heard yesterday in church (above) made me think back on why I started writing on Monday mornings. In part, I was prompted by the wisdom of a woman whose faithful witness inspired me. Verna Dozier was an educator in the schools of Washington, D.C., and a leader in the Episcopal Church. I’ve got her quote, the one printed above, on the wall of my office to remind me of the Sunday/Monday connection.

Don’t get me wrong. Sundays are awesome. We rightfully spend a lot of resources to make Sunday worship our best offering. But faith becomes compelling when it shapes our lives when we’re not in church. As the General Thanksgiving in the Prayer Book says, we are called to honor God not only with our lips but with our lives.

Among other things, it’s a way of saying that thoughts and prayers are not enough. That’s tragically obvious as we contend with the scourge of gun violence. Indeed, if all we do is rely on thoughts and prayers, that can have damaging and dangerous effect.

Hear what the prophet Isaiah has to say on the subject: “The Lord said these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13) Jesus put it this way: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) The New Testament letter of James says: “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2.17)

So in the season of Easter, as a church we read from the New Testament book called the Acts of the Apostles. I’m guessing no one thought of calling the book the Thoughts and Prayers of the Apostles. Again, don’t get me wrong. Gathering for worship was clearly at the heart of the early church. Thoughtful prayer mattered.

But the early church grew exponentially because people outside the church looked at people inside the church and said: “See how they love one another.’ Members of the community of faith shared resources with each other. No one was in need. Church members went out into the world to share good news with people who had been excluded. Folks who were marginalized, regarded as dispensable, e.g., children, old people, immigrants, orphans received care, were given compassionate attention.

Oh, how I wish people looked at the church, looked at our congregations, looked at my life and saw the love of Jesus at work in the world. I can dream, can’t I? But newsflash: that’s not the word on the street about the church in America these days. So here we are. What might we do about that?

We could do worse than to keep Verna Dozier’s quote front and center. To start each day with a bit of creative imagination about how we can show and share the love of God, known to us in Jesus. What would it mean to start each day thinking about how we can worship not only with our lips but with our lives. Our culture is hungry for that kind of faithful authenticity. It can be as simple as treating people we meet with lovingkindness, even the jerks (of which there are ample supply). It can be a matter of praying blessing on those who have hurt us, those who fuel our resentments. It can be hard, mustering courage to face the forces of violence in our world. It can be active ministry to those in need.

When any of that happens, we begin to get a vision of resurrection faith, enough to make us say: “Alleluia.”

-Jay Sidebotham


Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.
Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!
Learn more in our digital brochure.

Monday Matters (April 10, 2023)

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The Collect for the Feast of the Resurrection: Easter Day

O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


These days, Monday Matters offers reflections on the prayers we say in church on Sunday, the collect of the day. We do this based on the conviction that praying shapes our believing, that what we pray forms us. We do this hoping that the prayers we say on Sunday will carry us through the week.

The Difference Easter Makes

Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Resurrection, arguably the most significant feast in the Christian tradition. To paraphrase St. Paul, without the resurrection our faith makes no sense. This morning, in the wake of great celebrations in our churches, we begin a journey through the season of Easter, 50 days in which we explore the difference that Easter makes.

We’ll hear a lot in this season from the New Testament book, the Acts of the Apostles. It tells how the early church got off the ground, how a group of frightened and feckless disciples encountered the risen Jesus and were so affected by the experience that they were willing to give their lives for the sake of the Jesus movement. Easter made a big difference to them in those first days of the church. They changed the world.

Yesterday was also the day in which we remember the life, ministry and witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died on April 9 in 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been studying in New York, but returned to his native Germany to contest the ascendancy of the Nazi regime. He was arrested in Germany on April 5, 1943, and imprisoned in Berlin. After an attempt on Hitler’s life failed on April 9, 1944, documents were discovered linking Bonhoeffer to the conspiracy. He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, then to Schoenberg Prison. In that prison, he gathered and led a worshipping community. On Sunday, April 8, 1945, just as he concluded a service. two men came in with an ominous summons, “Prisoner Bonhoeffer … come with us.” Those present knew what this meant. As he left the room, he turned to his congregation and said, “For us, this is the end. For me, the beginning of life.” Bonhoeffer was hanged the next day, April 9, 1945 at Flossenburg Prison.

I sense that it was the confidence in the good news of Easter that allowed Bonhoeffer to see that in death life is changed not ended. I imagine that such faithful confidence allowed him to work fearlessly for justice and peace. He is just one in a great cloud of witnesses to the difference Easter makes.

Last Tuesday, on April 4, we observed the feast of Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life ended on that day in 1968. His work for civil rights was animated by his faith, which has at its heart the good news of Easter. He saw in Jesus the love and hope that could change the world, that could make a difference. He described the cross as the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken humanity. He said: “When I took up the cross, I recognized its meaning. The cross is something that you bear, and ultimately that you die on…If you have not discovered something you are willing to die for, then you are not fit to live.” On the night before he died, in a prophetic speech, King revealed that he was not afraid to die: “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life – longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just  want to do God’s will…And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have sen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” Dr. King knew the difference that Easter makes.

Se we now launch into the season of Easter, mindful of these and others in the great cloud of witnesses. Perhaps, probably and gratefully, we will not face the kind of test these two martyrs faced. But they give us a glimpse of the transformative power of Easter. They call on us to let the good news of Easter animate our life in the world, working for justice and peace. They help us see that we too can offer ourselves, in ways great and small, for the sake of the way of love. When that happens, it’s enough to make us say: “Alleluia.”

-Jay Sidebotham


Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.
Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!
Learn more in our digital brochure.

Monday Matters (April 3, 2023)

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The Collect for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


These days, Monday Matters offers reflections on the prayers we say in church on Sunday, the collect of the day. We do this based on the conviction that praying shapes our believing, that what we pray forms us. We do this hoping that the prayers we say on Sunday will carry us through the week.

Walk, don’t run through Holy Week

A friend who leads a congregation doesn’t sugarcoat it. He reminds folks from time to time that suffering is the promise life always keeps. And while that may not reflect the sunny optimism of Norman Vincent Peale or Joel Osteen, I think my friend is on to something fundamentally true about our lives. For all kinds of reasons, part of what it means to be human is to know brokenness of body, mind, spirit, memory, relationship, not to mention the brokenness of our culture, our political and economic systems.

Yesterday, on Palm Sunday, we heard the collect included above. The day is also known as the Sunday of the Passion, passion being one way of referring to suffering. As a prayer, this collect launches us on the annual journey of Holy Week, ultimately leading to Easter morning.

But we can’t get there too quickly. Walk, don’t run, through Holy Week. We spend this week with a focus on the various ways that Jesus faced suffering: betrayal, denial, isolation, misunderstanding of his closest companions, opposition from religious and political authorities, false accusation, ridicule, pain, torture, death, a sense that God had forsaken him.

All of it causes us to consider the mystery of suffering. Over the years, I’ve often returned to a short book by J. Christiaan Beker, who taught at Princeton Seminary. The book is entitled “Hope and Suffering: The Biblical Vision and the Human Predicament,” written with a biblical perspective on suffering, informed by Beker’s experience as a slave laborer during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. It’s a short book but has been helpful in noting that there is not just one way to understand why we suffer.

He notes that sometimes we suffer because of things we have done, because of dumb or destructive choices we make. A hospital administrator once told me that many patients in his hospital were there because of some sort of abusive behavior they had inflicted on themselves. This man was not blaming the victim. Just stating what he had observed.

Beker notes that sometimes we suffer because of things other people do to us, either individually or in some societal, systemic way. The history of racism in our nation is an example. Political leaders who protect their guns rather than our kids offer another example. The horrors unfolding in Ukraine make that point.

Suffering can come through the natural order, as we pause and pray this morning for those harmed by recent tornadoes in the south and midwest.

We can also note that sometimes we suffer for righteousness’ sake. I love the quote (author unknown) that says Jesus promised his disciples three things. They would be absurdly happy, absolutely fearless, and always in trouble.

Beker adds that sometimes suffering simply defies explanation, a mystery of why bad things happen to good people that we can never explain. Maybe we shouldn’t even try. That’s sort of where the book of Job leaves us. Our response can only be silent presence. A friend who is a composer (and good human being) wrote a piece of music after the shootings at the church in Charleston. The piece was entitled: There are no words.

There are some circumstances in which suffering can have a redemptive quality. Which brings us to Jesus. We walk with him this week through the suffering he experienced. Our focus is first and foremost on him, as he stretches out arms of love on the hard wood of the cross to draw us into his saving embrace. We recognize our complicity in his suffering. And we honor him, thank him, revere him, worship him as God amongst us, God with flesh on.

And as we recall his suffering, walking the way of the cross, we sense his presence with us in whatever suffering we face. Beyond that, as we realize that presence, we are called to be mindful (dare I say woke) to the suffering around us, and to find ways to be a healing presence, to practice compassion, which literally means suffering with.

All with a recognition that suffering is not the last word, that Easter is coming. But we can’t get there too soon. The experience of Easter will be richer for our walk through Holy Week. No sprinting. As this week we tell the story of Jesus’ passion, his suffering, may we commit to a pilgrimage that leads to resurrection, his resurrection and our own.

More about that next week, thanks be to God.

-Jay Sidebotham


Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.
Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!
Learn more in our digital brochure.