The Good Friday Resurrection starts inside us

By Sam Candler

Editor’s note: this sermon was delivered on Good Friday, April 10, 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In years past, I have preached on Good Friday in the glorious springtime, when the weather was so beautiful, in the fullness of azalea and dogwood blossoms, when people were fancy — when the world was alive and thriving and beautiful!

And, I remember on all those days, how hard it was to put myself into the somber mood of Good Friday. It was hard to talk about the suffering of Jesus when the sun outside was shining so brightly in our lives.

This year, of course, is different. We are living in a tremendous and overwhelming Good Friday. With the COVID-19 pandemic, our world is shut down and living in a global Good Friday.

This was originally published at the Episcopal Café website (www.episcopalcafe.com).

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I Am a Child

By Pamela A. Lewis

Like so many recent samples of footage showing police officers interacting with community residents, this was one that could not be un-seen: In February, the mother of an unidentified 9-year-old Rochester, N.Y. girl had called police because the girl was behaving erratically and was threatening to harm the mother. The officers struggled to get the girl into the police car, and scolded her for disobeying their repeated orders to calm down as she asked for her father. As the girl’s behavior escalated, police threatened to pepper spray her, which one of them eventually did, and the action was subsequently captured in newly-released footage. The clip sparked vociferous outrage, and added yet another series of protests to the already large collection against police brutality. Elba Pope, the girl’s mother, said she was preparing to file a lawsuit against the police department.

However, one exchange between an officer and the young girl stood out: “Stop acting like a child,” he told her. “I am a child!” she answered.

This article first appeared in Covenant, the weblog of the Living Church Foundation. Reprinted with permission. https://livingchurch.org/covenant/about/

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