It’s Passover week in 1st Century Jerusalem. A bustling throng of Jewish pilgrims have gathered in the city. But this year a preacher/carpenter from Nazareth is set to turn the tables of history – right before their eyes. This is the Easter story and this is your cue.

By Tweeting your story, the Easter(LIVE) website allows you to showcase your very own Passion Play. Be it a historical and Biblical account or a poetic, visual, musical or creative retelling - it’s up to you. It’s a chance to explore, to learn and be creative. Give it your personal stamp, bring it to life and share it with everyone.

I am going on a visual, digi-explorer journey, to see where my thoughts, prompts from others on Twitter, and Google take me… and may God prompt me to put something useful on here, alongside the materials we’ve been producing for BigBible!!

Thought 1

I am a keen supporter of 12Baskets, and am embedding myself in using the tools in order to provide feedback on how we can encourage its use using social media… so many people spend so long preparing sermons, tracking down images that can be (legitimately) used (praying before you download from Google isn’t really an ethical approach!), and we could do so much more if we SHARED images. The site already has over 35,000 images – what can you contribute?!

Anyway, I went onto 12baskets to look for images related to Palm Sunday… and here’s your opportunity to add to the 8 images currently online, although there’s also a great selection of written thoughts, hymns, and materials to purchase, and picked out the following couple of images:

12Baskets: http://12baskets.co.uk/view/images/palm-leaf-with-sun-shining-through

12 Baskets: http://12baskets.co.uk/view/images/jesus_enters_jerusalem_riding_upon_a_donkey

Thought 2

What were the verses that tell us the story of Palm Sunday, of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey… and note, as Richard Littledale has in his blog… that the donkey doesn’t only appear “in the Christmas story”.

Luke 19:29-40 “When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Lives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it? just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus’ and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order you disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’”

John 12:11-19 “The next day a great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel!’ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: ‘Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!’ His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!’”

eBibleTeacher.com

Thought 3

@richardlittleda had been talking to @vahva, as she’d posted the picture below – donkeys in the churchyard (from today!)… he’d responded to tell her about his blog post… donkeys are not just for Christmas!

Vahva: http://twitpic.com/4lypli

Thought 4

I wonder what YouTube has to offer on this? There are multiple videos on YouTube, but I thought this one was beautifully produced and with a great message…

Thought 5

I grew up in a Brethren church, and I’m not sure we did Easter in the same way that others do. The one thing that has always stuck out in my mind from when I started going to an Anglican church was the prominence of these palm crosses, so I headed over to Flickr to see if I could find a Creative Commons image for that… and went for a little hunt as to their significance. These crosses  can either be given to members of the congregation for them to place somewhere as a reminder of Easter throughout the year, or the alter may be covered with palms which are blessed, then kept, and burned the following year, the ashes used on Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent) to mark the forheads of the faithful (from here).

Thought 6

Maybe time for a little audio in our multi-media world… and prompted by following another Flickr image, came across AllGloryLaudAndHonor (downloadable MP3, taken from here)

Want more?

You can follow my contributions at http://www.easterlive2011.com/drbexl/ or follow the #EasterLive hashtag.

Semester 2 (Finishes 18th June)

CHECK OUT my 2010/11 Timetable!

• Monday 10-12: Design for Digital Media (after Easter only)
• Monday 3-5: Introduction to Media Studies
• Wednesday 9-12: Dreams and Nightmares
• Thursday 9-10;11-12: Film History
• Thursday 2-3 (sometimes 12-2): Creating and Consuming History
• Friday 9-12: Researching Media Studies
• History Independent Study Module, Dissertation/Second Marking
• Tuesday : 7.5 hours “Blended Learning Research Fellowship“
• 5 Final Year Project Students for Media Studies (Due 5th May 2010)
• Media Studies Website/Social Media (for April 2010)
• History Website (for March 2010)
• SkillsNet Website (Content completion – for Summer 2010)
• Adding French content to ARCA website (awaiting translations).
• Hand over the Syzergy site for Tim to continue updating!

To also fit in:

• Finish my three PGCLTHE assignments – all are part-done!
• Monday or Wednesday Evening: Housegroup, including Bank Holiday weekend away
• Friday afternoon: Unavailable
• Super Fun Days Out Adrenablog; Twitter feed, Facebook and Delicious
• Sunday: Christ Church, and 20s/30s weekend away
• Working on Digital Fingerprint as a business model, continuing WW2Poster; drbexl, looking for work for the summer/next semester
• FRIENDS, FAMILY, SOCIAL and GYM time (at least twice a week)!

Summer

• Holiday and/or Retreat
• Greenbelt
• Work on publications, CV, chase work for 2010/11!

I have written a number of articles for Culturewatch:

• My Sister’s Keeper
• Easy Virtue
• Jamie’s School Dinners
• Hitch
• The Games (Channel 4)

And I’d love to write more if I can find the time!