easter

HAPPY EASTER! Free Easter Mixtape Now Available!

/ Paul Burkhart / 4 Comments

Today, we usher in the season of Easter. This is a time that follows that mournfulness and quiet meditation that is the season of Lent.

During Lent, the tension and angst between who are and who we know we should be grows and grows. Good Friday is when Jesus bears the weight of this angst, Holy Saturday is when he enters into it fully, and Easter is when this tension breaks as we celebrate how Christ has overcome the weight and darkness of it all. This is meant to be a time of giddy joy and freedom and worship.

To help us in this time, I’m offering another mixtape. (I made some for both Advent and Lent.) I pray these songs and words are able to usher us into unfettered joy and gratitude to our God for all he has done, and all he has promised to do. As usual, you can both download and stream it for free. Here it is:

Click here for the Easter 2012 Mixtape

Feel free to download and share this as you like, and may it bless you this Easter season. Be sure to also follow the poetry, prayers, reflections, and readings I’ve offered for this season as well.

[Image Credit: the cover art above is an amazing piece by my favorite artist, Mark Rothko.]

on Easter: “to Life, a sonnet” [a poem]

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

to Life, a sonnet

____________________________________Praise.
_________________________________Ovate
______________________________Now
___________________________How’s
________________________Why’s
_____________________Cries
__________________Birth
_______________Groans
____________Crows
_________Creation
______Weep
___There:

Here:
Sleep…

[read my other Holy Week poetry here]

all writings licensed: Creative Commons License

{easter sunday} | prayer & N.T. Wright reflection for Easter

/ Paul Burkhart / 5 Comments

For Easter Week: readings/reflections + Easter Music Mixtape + Holy Day poetry.
{More on the why and how of Lent/Easter here.}

prayer.

O God, who has made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord’s resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in security and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.
(from the the Book of Common Prayer)

reflection.

Easter ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. It is any wonder people find hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? It is any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? It’s long over due that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system.

on Holy Saturday: “to death, a sonnet” [a poem]

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

to death, a sonnet

A fear as frank as frankness be
I hold within this frame so dear;
so dear please hold me, till this dark is past
_____— till the darkness passes mine eye.

But to be so engraced I know I must face
_____– and lose-
___________to this spectre this prospect requires.

O this still darkest night, I lie here betwixt
competing rays
__________of glory’s gaze.
One lies ahead; one lies to my face
___both wooing and charming a choice from my hands:

___________to re-seize and be lived,
___________or release and be sieved?

[read my other Holy Week poetry here]

[image by Mark Rothko]

all writings licensed: Creative Commons License

{holy saturday} | prayer & readings for Holy Week (2012)

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

For Holy Week: reading schedule/reflections + local Holy Week gatherings.
{More on the why and how of Lent here.}

prayer.

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from the liberti Lent & Easter 2012 prayerbook & the Book of Common Prayer)

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on Good Friday: “Coffee Crucifix” [a poem]

/ Paul Burkhart / 8 Comments

Coffee Crucifix

Crescent ring under porcelain smooth
___stain the wood-stained finish.
______(It is finished.)
___Marked with muddy water;
___mark the merry day; to
___marry the murdered man.

Floral notes in blackened waves
___crash the shore of trembled lips.
Choral bright, in darkest night,
___wake the tone of trebled kiss.

Younger tastes left open-wide; older eyes made
satisfied.

Mark the wood: complex simplicity.
Pierce my heart: storied infinity.

[read my other Holy Week poetry here]

all writings licensed: Creative Commons License

{good friday} | prayer & readings for Holy Week (2012)

/ Paul Burkhart / 2 Comments

For Holy Week: reading schedule/reflections + local Holy Week gatherings.
{More on the why and how of Lent here.}

prayer.

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from the liberti Lent & Easter 2012 prayerbook & the Book of Common Prayer)

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Maundy Thursday, Narrative & Sacrament | Lent {9}

/ Paul Burkhart / 5 Comments


Today is Maundy Thursday which is the time in the Christian Church calendar where we celebrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper; it also initiates the three Holy Days of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday.

I was raised as a Southern Baptist in Dallas, Texas. Liturgy, Church calendars, Holy Days, and Prayer books were as foreign to me as R-rated films, alcohol, and dancing. Now, though, as I’m looking for a Church to go to for a Good Friday service, even the Presbyterian church service all my friends are going to doesn’t feel liturgical and structured enough for me. What happened?

In the last few years between going to seminary (and dropping out) and changing churches, I have fallen in love with both liturgy and Sacrament.

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{maundy thursday} | prayer & readings for Holy Week (2012)

/ Paul Burkhart / 2 Comments

For Holy Week: reading schedule/reflections + local Holy Week gatherings.
{More on the why and how of Lent here.}

prayer.

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from the liberti Lent & Easter 2012 prayerbook & the Book of Common Prayer)

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From His Father [GUEST POEM]

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

by Jen Huber

He can easily say what he has lived by:
God and belonging; known from childhood.

He was raised to believe in what was taught
To stand by his father’s belief in his Father
Accept the judgement of another,
The forgiveness of one another
Believing in something unseen

From generation to generation
This belonging to faith has remained
And grasped his life long-lived
And to know that his Father carried
Him throughout his time

He can easily say what he has died for

[image credit: Lauren Chandler]

{wednesday} | prayer & readings for Holy Week (2012)

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

For Holy Week: reading schedule/reflections + local Holy Week gatherings.
{More on the why and how of Lent here.}

prayer.

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from the liberti Lent & Easter 2012 prayerbook & the Book of Common Prayer)

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{tuesday} | prayer & readings for Holy Week (2012)

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

For Holy Week: reading schedule/reflections + local Holy Week gatherings.
{More on the why and how of Lent here.}

prayer.

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from the liberti Lent & Easter 2012 prayerbook & the Book of Common Prayer)

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Free Holy Week Music: Cool Hand Luke’s “Of Man” & Lent Mixtape

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

All of us know that one of the things that can affect our mood like no other is music. And so, to that end, I wanted to tell you about one of my favorite albums ever, by my favorite band ever (they’ve had that title since I was in high school, so I promise, I’m not just exaggerating for effect), Cool Hand Luke’s Of Man.

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Holy Week & Meditations on Radical Grace

/ Paul Burkhart / 4 Comments

Last year, on Palm Sunday, I got the privilege to deliver a little message to a group of men at the prison ministry my church does each month. I ended up building off of that message and its outline and writing a series of blog posts meditating on Holy Week and the radical, scandalous grace inherent in the story and actions of Jesus over those days. For your mediation this year over Holy Week, I wanted to post these links for your perusal and, hopefully, your blessing.

The Scandal of Holy Week

{i} the forsaking of God | In this post, we meditate on the fact that Holy Week was the week-long process by which everything–from humanity to creation to God Himself— forsakes Jesus. We see that true disciples are not those that never forsake Jesus. In fact, we will all forsake Jesus in radical ways at some point.
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{monday} | prayer & readings for Holy Week (2012)

/ Paul Burkhart / 2 Comments

For Holy Week: reading schedule/reflections + local Holy Week gatherings.
{More on the why and how of Lent here.}

prayer.

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from the liberti Lent & Easter 2012 prayerbook & the Book of Common Prayer)

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