Month: March 2024

This jazz-story was first told on Resurrection Sunday at Grandview Church, Vancouver.

It creatively imagines how the whole creation may have responded on that day of Christ’s resurrection, by telling the story of Grey-Gum.
Grey-Gum is an intuitive Australian eucalyptus tree, who dwells in the middle of a hot, oily, black bitumen shopping centre car park.

I hope that you enjoy this jazz-story:
“Once upon a time there was a grey-gum eucalyptus tree, who grew by a small creek in a valley in Western Sydney, Australia. . .”
Mark Glanville

Thank you for joining us on-line!
OCC is made up of people who are meeting in-person and who are meeting on-line.

Remember we are currently showing the video of the service on a week’s delay. The video goes live at 8:00am.

So this video is from Palm Sunday 24 March 2024 but is being shown on 31 March 2024. Pastor Mike is speaking both online and in person at OCC.

God calls all of us into his presence:

He calls us to be together both with him and with one another;
He calls us to wait with and for him;
He calls us to serve & bless others – those who are part of God’s kingdom and those who have not yet responded to God’s grace.
As you prepare to watch our service video, we encourage you to take a few moments…

Get your coffee or tea. Settle in, be still…
Take some deep breaths… in and out… breathe.

 

Eugène Burnand’s 1867 painting The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection

Arise! People,
lift up your eyes, Is. 51:6
And look toward the east; Ps. 103:12
For soon, the glory of the Lord will be revealed, Is. 40:5a
All flesh will see it together; Is. 40:5b

Arise!
For the Sun of Righteousness will come, Mal. 4:2a
With healing in His wings! Mal. 4:2b
Bend your faces to the east, Is. 24:15
Awaken your eyes to the morning of our salvation! Is. 33:2

Arise!
For too long, we hungered in the night, Matt. 5:6
Scavenging in spiritual shadows; Jer. 6:4
For too long, we thirsted in darkness, Matt. 5:6
Wandering hopelessly under starless skies; Ex. 14:3

Arise! Arise!
And flood the world with light! Matt. 5:14
End this age of gloom! Is. 9:1
Rain warmth upon our land! Deut. 11:11
And coax the earth from its winter slumber! Song. 2:11

Arise! Arise!
Wipe out the thick clouds of transgression, Is. 44:22a
Break through the fog of despair; Eccl. 2:20
The heavy mist of ego and pride, Is. 44:22b
The overcast of guilt, which too long kept us captive; Ps. 32:5

Arise! Arise!
And give strength to the weary, Is. 40:29
And vision to the prisoners of darkness, Is. 42:7 Arise! The age of darkness has ended, Ps. 88:12
Our covenant with death is cancelled! Is. 28:18

Arise! Shine!
For our light has come! Is. 60:1a
The glory of the Lord has risen upon us! Is. 60:1b
Our sun will set no more, Is. 60:20a
Neither will our moon wane! Is. 60:20b

Arise!
The Lord will be our everlasting light, Is. 60:20c
Our nights of mourning are no more. Is. 60:20d
Arise!

 

After the cross had been carried,
After the weight is laid down,
After the body is buried,
Down where the darkness surrounds
  
After the end of the violence,
After the sky has gone dark,
Now there is nothing but silence
Broken by the beat of our hearts

He’s gone. He’s gone.
He’s gone. He’s gone.

After the last words are spoken,
We lay him down in the grave.
After our hearts have been broken,
Have all our hearts been betrayed?

He’s gone. He’s gone.
He’s gone. He’s gone.

Here at the tomb with our spices,
Love from our hearts is not gone.
Watch till the breaking sun rises,
What will we see at the dawn?

JS Bach: St Matthew Passion | Erbarme Dich, mein Gott | Iestyn Davies & Academy of Ancient Music

“Unless we walk through the darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, unless we recognize the horror of sin and its consequence of Jesus dying on the cross, unless we experience the despair the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, we can’t fully understand the light and hope of Sunday morning.”
~Kathleen Stephens

 

How many of our churches liturgize No-Name Saturday, the Holy Saturday Waiting Room – a place of inbetweenness (between Good Friday and Easter Sunday), a life lived in the tension of the already and the not yet? It’s a state of silence, speechlessness, hold-your-breath uncertainness, shock. A day when all metaphors break down. The Empty Space Place where “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”

 

Literary critic and writer George Steiner, speaks of Holy Saturday (Easter Eve) as a day that contains most of what we know as human experience:
“There is one particular day in Western history about which neither historical record nor myth nor Scripture make report. It is Saturday. Ours is the long day’s journey of the Saturday. Between suffering, aloneness, unutterable waste on the one hand and the dream of liberation, of rebirth on the other” (Real Presences [1989], 231).

go on up to the mountain of mercy
to the crimson perpetual tide
kneel down on the shore
be thirsty no more
go under and be purified

follow Christ to the Holy mountain
sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall
cleanse your heart and your soul
in the fountain that flows
for you and for me and for all

at the wonderful tragic mysterious tree
on that beautiful scandalous night you and me
were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
on that beautiful scandalous night

on the hillside you will be delivered
at the foot of the cross, justified
and your spirit restored
by the river that pours
from our blessed Saviour’s side

at the wonderful tragic mysterious tree
on that beautiful scandalous night you and me
were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
on that beautiful scandalous night

you carry the sin of mankind on your back
and the sky went black
go on up to the mountain of mercy
go the crimson perpetual tide
kneel down on the shore
be thirsty no more
go under and be purified

– Chorus (2x) –
on that beautiful scandalous night
beautiful scandalous
miraculous night

Songwriters: Derald E. Daugherty / Steve J. Hindalong
Beautiful Scandalous Night lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

The Triumph at Calvary, c. 1874, George Innessexp

James Tissot’s 1890 watercolour “What Our Lord Saw from the Cross” depicts Jesus’ death attended by uninterested Romans, scheming religious leaders, a handful of women, and the boy to whom he will entrust his mother.