Easter Day
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
-- Psalm 118:22
Because of the resurrection, this psalm has become a celebration of the faith confirmed by the experience of Easter. You can hear believers throughout the centuries, having relived the stories of the passion throughout Holy Week, coming into the sanctuary singing, "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever!" It is out of Jesus having been raised from the dead that Christians know that God, not death, has the final word in this world. Our universe is not a closed system but is open to the attention of a power from outside our time-constrained reality. This power is not an abstract reality but a personal God.
Jesus' message that God can be addressed as Abba, or daddy, means that God pays attention to our condition. "The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation." The universe in which we exist is not circumscribed by death but is open to a further reality. So the believer can say, "I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord." Recall that in scripture the term righteousness has its root meaning in right relationships. We connect with this power from beyond through worship that addresses eternity. "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord." God has responded to our prayer through Jesus' resurrection by which the rest of his ministry is validated. "I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."
While this psalm was originally meant to address the history of God's relationship with Israel, who also is the "stone that the builders rejected" that will be God's cornerstone in recreating the world, for Christians the firstfruits of that reality is experienced in the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, as Christians gather for worship on Easter Day, they can sing out with bold confidence: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
-- Psalm 118:22
Because of the resurrection, this psalm has become a celebration of the faith confirmed by the experience of Easter. You can hear believers throughout the centuries, having relived the stories of the passion throughout Holy Week, coming into the sanctuary singing, "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever!" It is out of Jesus having been raised from the dead that Christians know that God, not death, has the final word in this world. Our universe is not a closed system but is open to the attention of a power from outside our time-constrained reality. This power is not an abstract reality but a personal God.
Jesus' message that God can be addressed as Abba, or daddy, means that God pays attention to our condition. "The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation." The universe in which we exist is not circumscribed by death but is open to a further reality. So the believer can say, "I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord." Recall that in scripture the term righteousness has its root meaning in right relationships. We connect with this power from beyond through worship that addresses eternity. "Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord." God has responded to our prayer through Jesus' resurrection by which the rest of his ministry is validated. "I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."
While this psalm was originally meant to address the history of God's relationship with Israel, who also is the "stone that the builders rejected" that will be God's cornerstone in recreating the world, for Christians the firstfruits of that reality is experienced in the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, as Christians gather for worship on Easter Day, they can sing out with bold confidence: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
