Please look at this inspiring magical Canadian sunrise below Every day nature reminds us - that no matter what our circumstances or trials or personal insults - that the magnificence of the Universe is beyond words and mere human description. We can find warm and joy and a sense of rebirth as we are confronted by the absolute awesome power and incredible manifestation of our simple solar sun. Life would end without its gift of energy and renewal every day. Man so thinks he can rule his little sand boxes and waste so much in battle, larceny, control and judgment on fellow simple humans. When in reality -- none of us is immortal in flesh and will evolve to our spiritual shrouds regardless and despite riches or loss, or violence or earthly power. Below is an interesting essay I found from the Seattle paper " _Articles of Faith: Easter disrupts the way we have things organized_ (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/355963_faith22.html) " and I hope Anthony doesn't mind that I share it now here with some friends. I can only add a simple idea which grew from Liberation Theology - Rome used terror and torture and control to ensure a hierarchy and to maintain a transfer of wealth to an elite few - and that has been a recurring human theme - regardless of the epoch or continent. What the hope and message and glory of the Christian core believe in the Resurrection suggests is not a mere choreographed "brutal sacrifice and the nobility of earthly suffering with the promise of later heavenly reward" - coupled with cheap candy and bunny rabbits; rather, it is that, despite the most painful, humiliating, and terrorizing and public punishment and death -- Jesus message is that the power and majesty of the human soul remains in tact and rises to meet another day and another sunrise... No earthy king, no criminal, no petty magistrate, no form of human control can contain and suppress the human spirit ... Hug a fellow human and creature today and when you see each sunrise - pause and know that you too shine and fill our galaxy with unique majesty and wonder ...
Peace, Hugs, and Purrs, Carolyn Rose Goyda St. Louis, Missouri, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) _COAST TO COAST AM WITH GEORGE NOORY_ (http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page2491.html?theme=light) Sun's Geometry...Took this picture on March 16, 2008 at our cottage in the province of Quebec. The Sun seemed brighter and when looking at it through the pine trees you could clearly see the rainbow colors. When I saw the pictures later I was amazed at the hexagon shape faintly surrounding the sun with the particular colored cross and rays emitting all around. --Alain _Articles of Faith: Easter disrupts the way we have things organized_ (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/355963_faith22.html) Articles of Faith: Easter disrupts the way we have things organized By ANTHONY B. ROBINSON GUEST COLUMNIST "IT'S EASTER ... this Sunday?" asked my daughter the college student, home for spring break. "I thought Easter was in April!" She sounded offended. It's true, it is an early Easter, the earliest most of us will ever see. The last time Easter came this early was 1913. Easter won't be on March 23 again until 2228. But I liked that my daughter was surprised, even offended. That may be a better response to Easter, to God's intrusion into business as usual, than the standard response. Countless sermons heard and hymns sung this Sunday will assure folks that the whole point is, "Jesus is raised ... and now we, too, shall get to heaven," with the emphasis decidedly on the second part. But this is a strange take on the Easter story when you consider the Gospel narratives. There, the whole thing is a surprise, an offense. "I thought dead people were supposed to stay dead!" "I thought Easter was supposed to be in April!" In the four Gospels, Easter doesn't have a lot to do with individual immortality. Easter has a lot -- everything -- to do with the disruption of the way we have things organized. It has a lot to do with the thwarting of our best plans to maintain law and order. Easter has a lot to do with a coalition of government officials and religious leaders who wanted to maintain peace and security, even if it took torture to do it. I especially like the way Matthew, the first Gospel, tells it. The Roman governor, Pilate, at the request of religious leaders, details a guard to stand watch at the tomb. Pilate sends them off, saying, "Make it as secure as you can." Security is Job One. Make us secure, and it doesn't matter what you have to do to do it. Cost is no object. Torture if you have to. Turns out, and this is the good news, as "secure as you can make it" isn't all that secure. Turns out, Easter isn't so much about life after death, as life before death and our efforts to secure ourselves against it. Easter is about God's intrusion into our plans, our attempts to get things under control, our security systems. It's about God's odd plan to raise us to life before we die. The other evening, I went to a book reading. The author was a member of a church I used to serve as pastor. She had written a book about her family's experience after her husband fell and broke his neck. The title of the book is "Some Things Are Unbreakable." Seated around the table at the public library, a dozen women were discussing the book. One said she had been reading the book on a bus the other day when she felt a thump on her shoulder. She turned around. "It was," she told the author, pausing to find the right word, "this derelict-looking man. He was excited. He pointed at your book, your family's picture on the cover. He said, 'I know those people. They go to my church. Wonderful family.' " Another woman in the group turned to me. "A church with derelicts?" she said. "Yeah, a whole church full," I replied with a wink. Derelicts are people neglectful of their duties, their obligations. It being Holy Week, I remembered that the word would pretty well describe all 12 of Jesus' disciples. When the chips were down, all had gone AWOL. One turned him in. The lead disciple said, "I don't know him." The rest just took off. We have all gone derelict -- missing in life, settling instead for being as secure as we can make ourselves. Still God comes back, even early. Back to us derelicts. Back to us. Back for us. Anthony B. Robinson's column appears Saturdays. He is a speaker, consultant and writer. His recent books include "Common Grace: How to be a Person and Other Spiritual Matters," and "Leadership for Vital Congregations." Want to suggest ideas for future columns? He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home. (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15?ncid=aolhom00030000000001)
