It’s the Easter season! We’re in the time in the church calendar marked off for celebration – after all, Jesus is risen and lives!
Mind, I’ve not felt very celebratory. Both Nicholas and I came down with covid on Easter Sunday, and I’ve only left the house a few times since. The virus left with me fatigue, although I’m gaining in strength each day and managed a gentle pilates workout yesterday. So although I’ve not celebrated much, I’ve been aware of this season set aside to give thanks, to wonder, to delight. Sometimes that’s how we have to celebrate – while acknowledging the pain we’re also in.
And how do we do so? With the presence of the risen Christ, of Jesus with us. I love this photo that Janet Nielson took, which I share with her permission. She was one of the pilgrims to Iona on the wonderful McCabe Pilgrimages trip at the beginning of April I got to lead. To me this photo reeks of the glory of God in our midst… it’s almost like I can see Jesus’ outline in the light.
How might you celebrate today? Through gritted teeth or not…
“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” John 2:1–12
For a giggle (but sometimes a horrified gasp), check out these wedding failures to see a host of videos in which the unexpected happens, such as tripping on high heels or other cringe-inducing accidents. Jesus saved the day in such a situation back when wedding feasts could have lasted a week. I love that his first miracle as marked in John’s gospel was to redeem a wedding from failure.
The story may be familiar – the host ran out of wine, which would have been a reprehensible oversight in ancient times when hospitality was prized. The feast had been occurring for some time; perhaps Jesus and his disciples were invited at the last minute – adding to the shortage of wine. He reveals himself as Lord over creation as he changes the water into wine. No cheap boxed wine either – this was the best vintage, in abundance. As the master of the banquet said with incredulity, “You’ve saved the best for now.”
I wanted to include this passage in our engagement with Sabbath and rest because so often we don’t connect a good party with as a means of practicing rest. We might have inherited a view of the Sabbath as a time of no smiles or loud laughter, thinking that our party behavior won’t fall in line with what is holy. But where do we get these ideas from? After all, Jesus knew how to feast and make merry. He wanted people to enjoy themselves, celebrating the beauty of two lives coming together as one.
In prayer, ask the Lord if there’s a party or other social gathering that you could plan or host. How could this occasion, set aside to celebrate and give thanks, lead to the worship of God? How could, as it’s blessing others, bring you blessing?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to celebrate fully, losing my worries as I look to you as the Master of the Dance. May I bring you glory and praise. Amen.
After forty days of no alleluias, we bring out the word in style today, speaking it with joy and gratitude. As I say in my book, Finding Myself in Britain:
We build up to Easter with a forty-day season of reflection, and yet we seem not to celebrate more than a day. Just like the twelve days of Christmas are lost on our culture. Tom Wright, the prolific and engaging theologian, rues this oversight. He says that Easter ought to be a long festival:
“with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of Alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it 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? Is it 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 overdue that we took a hard look at how we keep Easter in church, at home, in our personal lives, right through the system. And if it means rethinking some cherished habits, well maybe it’s time to wake up.” (Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope [London: SPCK, 2007], 268.)
I agree with him; as Christians we should be known for the joy that marks our faces and our characters as we exude hope and grace. As I’ve learned on my journey to finding myself in Britain, in this life we will face disappointment, disease, and hardship, but as God’s beloved, his promises and gifts should change our disposition. He helps us to forgive; he gives us hope and strength; he showers us with grace. As St Augustine of Hippo reminds us: “We are an Easter people and our song is ‘Alleluia!’” (“Being Easter People,” Finding Myself in Britain, 144–45)
As he ended the class, our lecturer said, “Well, that’s probably enough on Augustine’s On the Trinity.”
I piped up, “Yes, but we understand you have a birthday coming up, and we want to celebrate!” We broke into song, enjoying the stunned look on his face.
I enjoyed organizing the surprise party for our lecturer, who when he interviewed me for the course at Heythrop College, let on that we shared the same birthday, but a year apart. I filed that little detail away, for use later…
In organizing the get-together after our lecture, I was a bit cheeky as I didn’t let on to my fellow students that it was my birthday too. It was more fun to pull off the surprise for him – he’s a gracious, softly spoken man with a big intellect and an equally big heart. And I don’t know that we do enough celebrating, so give me a reason and I’m on it.
After all, as I say in Finding Myself in Britain, in the chapter, “Come to my Party,” celebration is a spiritual discipline:
As we see with King David, celebration is rooted in gratitude to God for the many gifts he gives us. I love how Dallas Willard puts it in his classic The Spirit of the Disciplines: “Holy delight and joy is the great antidote to despair and is a wellspring of genuine gratitude – the kind that starts at our toes and blasts off from our loins and diaphragm through the top of our head, flinging our arms and our eyes and our voice upward toward our good God.”[1]
How might you incorporate more celebrations into your life? Who could you surprise?
And for some tips on how to throw a birthday party for yourself, with some thought-provoking dinner-party questions you could pose, check out my celebrations chapter. No leftover Bounty or Dove Caramels, I promise. (That’s a UK quip – sorry if it doesn’t compute!)
[1] Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1988), 179.
Celebration is such an important spiritual discipline, but we often overlook it. Perhaps we feel indulgent if we are celebrating an accomplishment – such as the publication of my book. But I’m all for celebration, and I know that Finding Myself in Britain was written only with the help of so many people – those at the publisher (MD, editors, typesetters, proofreaders, designers, marketers and sales people) as well as friends and family (reviewers, readers, encouragers, putter-up-ers-when-she’s-cranky!). So it was right and good and wonderful to launch my book-baby into the world on Sunday at our church.
Our church – the setting for the book launch.
Later I may post the link to my sermon – or maybe not if I feel shy! (I don’t have the copy yet.) It was a privilege to preach on Matthew 10, the calling of the apostles to share the good news of Jesus. He outlines to them some of the challenges they will face, and he calls for their complete devotion. One of the key verses I was speaking on was Matthew 10:39: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” For as I’ve “lost” my life by moving to Britain, I’ve actually found it.
The all-important set-up. Showing off the Stars and Stripes to my friend Esther Clift, with a flourish.
Me with Marketing Queen, Kate Beaton. I think she was instructing me on the best way to read a book.
It’s not all drudgery! With Becky Fawcett, who managed the editorial process and among other things kept my i’s dotted and t’s crossed. She was a huge help with the recipes, helping me translate them into British measurements and even testing many of them out.
The sermon. My text wasn’t Jonah, but he got a mention, as I never wanted to live outside of the States. Ha!
Nicholas interviewing me after the sermon. He normally only wears “proper” shoes, but was wearing tennis shoes (UK: trainers) only because his ankle is still healing up after the summer’s fracture.
It was a lovely full house! (The couches are the creche area to make families with small children welcome.)
After the service I got to sign books – what a joy and a privilege that was! Seeing my book-baby going into the hands of so many whom I love was a humbling honor and delight. We were especially delighted to welcome our closest friends in the UK – from Staffordshire and Gloucestshire and Southampton and outside London.
Signing books, which was such fun. PyelotBoy and CutiePyeGirl were my helpers.
We had a fantastic buffet lunch with lots of lovely chicken (made by the wonderful Alie Teale), salads (my friends indulged me and made some of the recipes from the book) and desserts – also with an American theme (and thus they were not that day called “puddings”). Oreo cheesecake and Oreo truffles and brownies and blonde brownies and red velvet cake and rice krispy treats and even (one of my favorites) a Costco cake.
What a fantastic spread.
Desserts! I don’t think anyone left hungry.
A particularly tasty salad, in my book.
The flowers representing my fantabulous friends forever (sent to me by my dear high-school friends)
With my editor Jennie Pollock, who pushed me after I’d already rewritten the thing 3 times. I’m so glad she did!
I have to include this photo from the Christian Resources Together retreat, in which I made Authentic Meda’s MD, Steve Mitchell, pose with me (for he wasn’t able to be at the launch). Finding Myself in Britain never would have been born without his vision, commitment, and encouragement. I’m so grateful.
Book-baby, go well. I give thanks you’re out there in the world.
Why does a nation so filled with great achievements and peoples not celebrate? Why is a national day off simply called a Bank Holiday?
Photo credit: Creative Commons, MikeDixson
Though I’ve lived on this small island for many a year now, I’ve taken a long time to understand what is behind this reticence. But my opening sentence gives a hint, for which nation am I talking about? The United Kingdom, after all, is a grouping of nations – the technical terms is, “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
And I suppose the English are most reticent of all to celebrate their patron saint’s day, which is today – St George. For they have been seen as the oppressor. And to be English means to be understated; not to flaunt one’s accomplishments or achievements, lest one is seen as bragging.
But times may be changing, and even Downing Street is today flying St George’s flag, alongside the Union Jack. Celebrations are taking place around the country, including a great feast in Trafalgar Square. Why we don’t have a massive celebration of the Bard today I do not know though – after all, it’s Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.
If you’re English, are you reticent to fly St George’s flag or celebrate your Englishness? Why or why not?
