orthodox easter prison epistle

Today is Orthodox Easter. Christos Voskrese! I feel subtly connected to this day because of my husband's Ukrainian and Russian heritage. The prison aspect of Russia also resonates with me because hubby's great-grandfather had experience with the Russian penal system. After he converted to protestantism (ironically from the Orthodox faith) he was exiled to the nether regions of Russia for some years in the late 1890s.

For those reasons when a link to a "Letter from Butyrskaya Prison - Pascha 1928" hove into my part of the twitterverse, it caught my attention.

In this letter Georgy writes to his uncle Grishanchik (who had emigrated to Paris), from Butyrskaya Prison during the Easter season of 1928. In moving and poetic prose he remembers the last Easter spent with Uncle Grishanchik and Aunt Masha in their home town of Sergiyevskoye -- the Easter of 1918:

"... If you have not forgotten, Easter in 1918 was rather late, and spring was early and very warm, so when in the last weeks of Lent I had to take Aunt Masha to Ferzikovo, the roads were impassable. I remember that trip as now; it was a warm, heavy, and humid day, which consumed the last snow in the forests and gullies faster than the hottest sun; wherever you looked, water, water, and more water, and all the sounds seemed to rise from it, from the burbling and rushing of the streams on all sides to the ceaseless ring of countless larks.

Holy Week - Easter Sunday

He is risen

He is risen indeed!

"Mary Magdalene and the Holy Women at the Tomb" by James Tissot, 1836-1902

Read: Mark 16:1-13

The story of the resurrection includes a lot of doubting. The women who first discovered Jesus was gone and heard from the angel that Jesus was risen, "trembled and were amazed. And they said, nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

Mary Magdalene saw Jesus but when she reported to His friends, "...they did not believe."

After He appeared to two disciples on the Road to Emmaus and they later told the disciples, the disciples "...did not believe them either."

People don't like to be thought gullible. Skepticism is way cooler. But when it comes to the things of God, we can believe the promises He has made in the Bible.

The disciples wanted nothing more than to have Jesus back with them again. But when He appeared after His resurrection, they didn't believe it could be Him - even though he had told them plainly this would happen.

Oswald Chambers says, "It is always a wonder when God answers prayer...it is so wonderful that a great many people believe it impossible. 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do' (John 14:13). Isn't that wonderful? It is so wonderful that I do not suppose more than half of us really believe it. 'Every one that asketh receiveth' (Matthew 7:8). Isn't that wonderful?"

- Oswald Chambers - If You Ask, p. 37

Dear Jesus, nothing is too hard for You. Your resurrection proves it. I want to be a believer. Help my unbelief.

Holy Week - Saturday

"Joseph of Arimathaea" by James Tissot, 1836-1902

To Read: Mark 15:42-47
(Readings suggested by Canadian Bible Society)

In these five verses, nine words popped out at me: "who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God." Ping! That's me. That's you if inside you is that deep yearning for His peace, love and justice to win; for God's order, His kingdom to come on earth.

Joseph of Arimathaea, the man who was waiting, had heard Jesus' teaching and seen his miracles. He just knew Jesus was the fulfillment of God's promise of a king, come to establish a new order. But now his hero was dead.

Still, that kingdom sense in Joseph prompted him to get up the courage to ask Pilate for Jesus' body. Because that's what "waiting for the kingdom" is about too. It's about facing the meaningless, the awful, the sad, the tragic. It's about not slumping into unbelief just because things aren't going the way we thought they would but carrying on, even in the dark.

We too must wait for the kingdom through good and bad. It's easy to anticipate the kingdom when things turn out the way we hope: we get the job, health is restored, the house sells. But in the face of unemployment, sickness, dashed dreams, does our kingdom hope survive?

Dear Lord, please help me wait for Your kingdom with positive action, never losing sight of the fact someday it will come "on earth as it is in heaven."

**************

Story time

This "waiting for the kingdom" reminds me of a little story Richard Stearns (head of World Vision USA) tells in his book The Hole in Our Gospel. He was visiting a desperately poor family high in the Andes. Octaviana was a widow trying to support herself and her children as well as pay back a $300 debt her husband had incurred. The whole family was sick with parasites. Her small flock of sheep were sick too. Here is Rich Stearns' description of his visit with her. I think it's a beautiful illustration of both sides of 'waiting for the kingdom.'

"I asked her what she prayed for, because I could tell she was a woman of deep faith. She said she prayed to God that He would not forget her and her three children on that remote mountain -- that He would help her carry this burden and that He would send help. And as I held her hand and prayed for her, God revealed to me a profound truth -- that I was the answer to Octaviana's prayer. Eight thousand miles from my home in Seattle, 14,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains, she had cried out to God for help, and He had sent me. God had sent me to help her, He had sent me to comfort her in her suffering, and He had sent me to be Christ's love to her. She had prayed and I was God's answer, I would be God's miracle in her life.

And then the even bigger truth washed over me. I could see that all across the world people were crying out in desperation to God for help, for comfort; widows, orphans, the sick, the disabled, the poor and the exploited. These millions of prayers were being lifted up to God, and we, each of us who claim to be His followers, were to be His answer. We were the ones who would bring the "good news" of Christ to the poor, the sick, the downtrodden. God had not turned His back on the poor in their suffering. God had sent us. This was the good news of the gospel -- good news indeed for the poor."

(The Hole in Our Gospel, pages 166,167)

Holy Week - Good Friday

"Christ on the Cross" by Eugene Delacroix, 1798-1863

Read Mark 15:1-41

How quickly things got ugly once evil was allowed to run free. The crowd turned nasty. The soldiers were blasphemous and abusive. Even the others condemned to death were full of sarcasm and ridicule.

But on another plane a great victory was being won. Jesus had met God's standard of perfection. He was the Lamb of God, paying the penalty for our sin. Our relationship with God would be restored.

At His death the earth shook. The "veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom"; physically impossible for a person to tear it in that manner. Jesus' death opened the way for us to come into the very presence of God. That is why we can call the day we remember a death - GOOD.

Holy Week - Thursday

Read Mark 14:12-72

Jesus and His disciples have eaten the Passover meal. After dinner they walk to Gethsemane Garden. Jesus says to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray." Taking Peter, James and John He walks on, then stops. "Stay here and watch," He says, and goes deeper into the garden.

We don't know how long He spends in intense prayer. Perhaps an hour. When He returns, they are all asleep. "Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation."

What is this watching?

Oswald Chambers says:

"Is our idea of prayer based on the keen watching that Jesus Christ asked of His disciples?.... Probably our biggest difficulty is that our Lord is not really Master... The point is are we prepared for our Lord to say to us, 'Sit ye here while I go yonder'? Are we prepared to give due weight to the fact that we are not our own master? Are we devotees to a cause or disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ? He said to the disciples, 'Sit ye here.' If they had been like some of us they would have said, 'No it it absurd. We must go and do something.'"

- Oswald Chambers from If You Will Ask - Reflections on Prayer

Dear Lord, become just that - Lord, Master, Boss. I would be your servant, slave, steward, go-fer ... to do, or wait and watch.

Holy Week - Wednesday

Read Mark 14:1-11

How can she show Jesus the extent of her love? She imagines the greatest extravagance. She could pour her most costly treasure over Him - the vial of perfumed oil that cost a year's wages. And then she actually does it. Jesus, moved by her gesture, prophecies the meaning of her act. She is anointing His body for burial but beforehand, when He can still appreciate it.

He is fed up. How can a potential king have so little money sense? Jesus' affirming of the woman's wastefulness is the final straw. He goes to the priests and scribes - who just happen to be on his wavelength. Plus they pay good money. He puts in motion the last events of Jesus' life by agreeing to betray Him.

Two people acting out of the consistency of their hearts with very different outcomes.

What is my heart? Do my actions build up God's kingdom, like the woman's did, or work against it, like Judas's? I need to remember, their actions didn't come out of a vacuum but were logical next steps of consistent lives that were already pointing in a direction. In what direction is my life pointing?

Lord, show me the attitude of my heart. May it be toward You.

Holy Week - Tuesday

"Jesus upon the Mount of Olives" - Illustrations by Alexandre Bida, from Christ in Art; or, The Gospel Life of Jesus: With the Bida Illustrations. by Edward Eggleston. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1874.

Tuesday reading: Mark 11:20-13:37

Watch. "Watch and pray. Watch therefore for you do not know when the master of the house is coming...Watch." These are the instructions Jesus gives after making a string of chilling predictions about end times: wars and rumors of wars, nations rising against nation, earthquakes, famine and troubles (Mark 13).

I'm sure the three disciples Jesus took with him deep into Gethsemane wished they'd paid more attention to this lesson after Jesus' arrest. Similarly, if I knew what was ahead for me, would I be a better watcher?

Lord, please give me a watchful spirit; and Your wise perspective on the world around me.

Holy Week - Monday

"The accursed fig tree" by James Tissot, 1836-1902

Monday reading: Mark 11:12-19

Jesus is in no mood for lightness. He curses a barren fig tree. Then He cleans the money changers and dove sellers out of the temple. His explanation, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a den of thieves."

What does the serious, down-to-business, days-from-the-cross Jesus curse in our lives, my life? My fruitlessness? My affair with the things of this world?

God help me, this Holy Week, to get honest with You and let You get ruthless with me.

Holy Week - Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday which is the beginning of Holy Week - the week that precedes Easter.

Palm Sunday is the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as the crowds thronged around, throwing their clothes and branches in his donkey's path while shouting "Hosanna." The joyous celebration is made all the more poignant by our knowledge of how soon those cheers will change to jeers. One of the reasons this story hits me hard is how it reminds me of my own fickleness.

Reading for Palm Sunday: Mark 11:1-11

"The Procession in the Streets of Jerusalem" by James Tissot 1836-1902

the black hole of the gospel

"Gospel" is a beige word, one of those words we read but it doesn't register because it's so common. It shouldn't be that way. For gospel" (euangelion), a word that means "good news," has significance to all of us. While in ancient Greek "gospel" referred to the reward given for bringing good news, in the New Testament it means the good news itself.

Good news about what? About God and humankind. About the promise of salvation and its fulfillment by the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

This month's feature at Rebecca Writes is the gospel. Every Tuesday and Friday in October she has been putting up links to posts from around blogland that refer to some aspect of the gospel.

The poem "Black Hole" does that.

I first did some reading around black holes years ago when one of the kids was researching a science project. The theory that matter and light swept into a black hole's vortex are lost to us forever remind me of what happened to sin when Jesus died on the cross.

"The darkness at the crucifixion" - Gustave Dore, 1865

BLACK HOLE
"About noon darkness fell across the entire land..." Mark 15:33

Forbidden fruit’s magnetic lure,
crimson Jealousy, Murder,
consuming Lust,
that bangs down doors.

Fear, Conniving,
Lies – "She is my sister."
Complaints, Grumbling, Muttering
Demands: "We want a king."
Whining, Rebellion: "Who made you king?"
Gagging, Tormenting,
Killing truth-sayers.

Disease – rotting limbs,
glazed eyes, fever,
paralysis.
Demonized, rage-filled shrieks
Schemes, Betrayal, Mockery:
Curses, Spitting
"If you’re so wonderful
come down from the cross."

All vortexed that afternoon
in thick, heavy Evil.
Oppression.
Tear-your-hair-out Despair.
Darkness. Sin’s sum total
sucked into a black hole...

“It is finished.”

© 2007 - V. Nesdoly

easter pysanka

I've been saving this beautiful Vegreville pysanka statue / weather vane for this season. Here it is today -- a week before Good Friday.

We stopped in Vegreville on our trip through Alberta last fall to photograph this largest pysanka in the world. It was put up in 1974 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the RCMP and to celebrate the cultural diversity of the Vegreville community. Hubby, standing at its base, gives an idea of its size.


Pysanka are traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs. They are made with chicken eggs using a batik process, where wax, funneled through the tip of an instrument that's as fine as a pen, provides a resist to many baths of dye. The end result is amazingly intricate and colorful.

My husband is of Ukrainian descent and his mom had her own collection of pysanka -- not made by her, though.

For a detailed description of the process and explanation of what the colors signify, visit "Art of Ukrainian Pysanka" by artist and muralist Patricia Buzo of -- Patricia's Palette.

For a collection of hand-made pysanka that spans years, check out Luba Petrusha's Annual Collections gallery. Click on each year (top) to view the collection of that year's pysanka. Absolutely stunning!