John Piper: A Conversation with Death on Good Friday

I saw John Piper’s blog entry A Conversation with Death on Good Friday posted on many different blogs in recent days, but am just now reminded to post it.  Although written and posted on Good Friday, it speaks to us throughout the Easter season because Christ’s resurrection was the exclamation point, the assurance that Christ’s victory over sin, death and hell is true.

Here’s an excerpt:

CHRISTIAN:

Hello, Death, my old enemy. My old slave-master. Have you come to talk to me again? To frighten me?

I am not the person you think I am. I am not the one you used to talk to. Something has happened. Let me ask you a question, Death.

Where is your sting?

DEATH, sneeringly:

My sting is your sin.

CHRISTIAN:

I know that, Death. But that’s not what I asked you. I asked, where is your sting? I know what it is. But tell me where it is.

Why are you fidgeting, Death? Why are you looking away? Why are you turning to go? Wait, Death, you have not answered my question. Where is your sting?

Where is, my sin?

Go read John Piper’s full wonderful entry!

From the midst of the fire–40 million voices and the ACC

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Daniel 3:28

O Lord our God, Holy One of Israel, our Savior,
You are the creator of heaven and earth and all that is therein. We do not fear. You have formed us and redeemed us and called us by name. You rescue Your children. We are Yours.
You formed the unborn children in America who were aborted. As they passed through the waters of the womb, You were with them. As they passed through the rivers of blood, You were there. As they walked through the fires of Molech, they were not burned. You created them, You formed them, and You saved them. We praise Your holy name.
Are the 40 million children now gathered around Your throne? Are they praying for their mothers and fathers? Are they praying for the Episcopal Church, an official member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice? Are they praying for those who have protested this program of death? Are they praying for the Anglican Church of North America?
Lord, hear the sound of their prayers. Release the sound of their prayers over this land and over the Anglican Communion. May the prayers of the 40 million children be a river of living water that flows into the Hope River in Jamaica and through the Anglican Consultative Council meeting.
May the voices of the Anglican Communion join with theirs and say, “To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever.” Amen. Amen. Amen.
Isaiah 43:1-3, Jude 25

Psalm 20:1-5

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob defend you; (Psalm 20:1)
      LORD, hear our cries to you; have mercy on us. You met Jacob at Peniel and you defended him in his hour of need. Please meet us and defend us as well.

May he send you help from the sanctuary, and strengthen you out of Zion; (Psalm 20:2)
      Jesus, we cry out to you for the help only you can give.

May he remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. (Psalm 20:3)
      Jesus, with the thief on the cross we cry out to you, “Remember me!”

May he grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose. (Psalm 20:4)
      Father, we want our hearts ‘ desires to line up with your good purposes for us.

We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions. (Psalm 20:5)
      Holy Spirit, thank you for the joy you give us; help us daily trust in the name of Jesus; help us cry out to our father in heaven knowing that he cares for his children. Thank you for your help and comfort.

      A word received: Pray for my people. Pray for my people to turn to me, to return to me. Pray they will be set free from bondage. Pray for my people to desire to be rescued from sin and death.

Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); Daniel 3:19-30; 1 John 3:11-18; Luke 4:1-13
Sunday: 148, 149, 150; Daniel 4:1-18; 1 Peter 4:7-11; John 21:15-25

      Notes from the Front Line

Pray for Bishop Bill’s address to the Diocesan Convention that we will hear the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Albany Intercessor

Collect for the Second Week of Easter

I’ve fallen behind in posting various Easter collects.  Here is the collect for the second week of Easter

Collect
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Post Communion
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the Church of Ireland

Originally found here in a collection of Easter collects.

[if link above is broken, try this cached version]

Easter Quotes: William Hobart Hare’s Easter sermon in Yokohama, 1891

From Northern Plains Anglican, where there is more:

Let us never in the midst of the business of the Church lose sight of the fact that there is such a mistake as that of being very busy with the affairs of the Kingdom of heaven and yet of possessing very little personal knowledge of the King; nor let us forget in trying to fit our work in with the conditions in which we find ourselves that the supreme need of men everywhere, whatever may be their superficial desires, is just that need which certain Greeks expressed, as we are told in St. John’s Gospel, ‘Sir, we would see Jesus.’ I feel sure that the highest conviction of us all is, however much passing things may for a time divert us, that the supreme desire and effort of a Christian should be to fix his own full gaze, and to fix the gaze of others, upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man.

– William Hobart Hare

Some ACC laity profiles

Vice Chair
Professor George Koshy (Church of South India)
General Secretary of the Church of South India, elected vice-chairman of the ACC in 2002, member of World Council of Churches.

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia
Dr Anthony Fitchett
In 2005, asked the standing committee to consider specified rights of the lay members. Under the resolution, the Standing Committee would examine circumstance when it would be appropriate to vote by orders; clarifies the use of secret ballots and majorities other than a simple majority; examines means to persuade primates to send lay people in those instances where a province sends only one delegate to ACC; considers whether the chair of vice-chair shall be one clerical and one lay; provide a meeting of lay members early in each ACC gathering.

The Anglican Church of Australia
Mr Robert Fordham
In 2005, elected to the Inter-Anglican Finance and Administrative Committee. An accountant. He was a Member of the Parliament of Victoria for twenty-two years and held five Ministerial portfolios including Education and Industry, Technology and Resources. He was Deputy Premier from 1982 to 1989. While Minister for Education he was awarded the inaugural gold medal of the Australian Council for Educational Administration, in recognition of his own and his Department’s contribution to the reform and restructure of State education in Victoria. Chairman of board of a water authority and a winery.

Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil
Professor Joanildo Burity
Political scientist. Resides in Recife.

The Anglican Church of Canada
Ms Suzanne Lawson
Received a lifetime achievement award from the International Association for Volunteer Administration. Suzanne Lawson is a seasoned professional executive in the Canadian and international voluntary sector. She has held a variety of positions in the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, was Executive Director of Ontario’s Arthritis Society, Executive Director of Program for The Anglican Church of Canada, Executive Director for the ALS Society of Canada (known often as Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Director of Volunteer Resources for Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital. She took an active role in the leadership of the Canadian Government’s Voluntary Sector Initiative. Article in Integrity newsletter, Toronto.

The Church of the Province of Central Africa
Mr Daniel Taolo
Attended the 3rd Global South encounter.

Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America
Miss Maria Elizabeth Barahona Flores
We do not know if she is related to the primate of Central America, whose last name is Barahona. Ms Lisbeth Barahona Flores of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network spoke on “Gender, trade, and entrepreneurship.” She also attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women, Anglican Women’s Forum.

The Church of England
Canon Elizabeth Paver
Retired school principal. On the ACC standing committee. Did not feel that the HoB had responded adequately to the requests of the Dar es Salaam communique. Signed letter of support for Bp Iker in 2007.

The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean
Dr Michel Razafiarivony
Madagascar ethnologist, I think.

The Church of Ireland
Miss Kate Turner
Runs a non-government organization for conflict resolution in Ireland. In 2005, protested the primates request to suspent TEC and the AcoC delegates from the ACC meeting. Attended the Ianternational Anglican Women’s Network, consultation of African anglican women.

The Anglican Church of Kenya
Mr Amos Kirani Kiriro
No information found.

La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico
Miss Sarai Osnaya-Jimenez
No information found in English.

The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)
Dr San Myat Shwe
?Related to Rev Dr Mahn San Si Htay, previous ACC member.

The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Mr Abraham Yisa
Barrister. Registrar of the Church of Nigeria. Chairman of the CANA board of trustees.

The Church of North India (United)
Mr Kalyan Peterson – alternate member
Honorary treasurer of CNI. Formerly Associate General Secretary of the ISPCK.

Hebrews 13:20-21 (New International Version)
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.