Dear Friends in Christ,
In
just a few days the sounds and sights of Easter will burst forth across
the diocese. Churches from Jenkins Bridge on the Eastern Shore, to
inner city Norfolk, to Danville in the West will celebrate the day that
defines all the other days of our faith. Lilies will fill our
sanctuaries with spring fragrance. The people of God will don their
"Sunday finest" clothes. Bright colors will replace the darkened shades
of Lent. Choirs will sing with particular exuberance. Clergy will once
again say, "Alleluia" in the liturgy! Children will scatter across the
green grass of our church yards in search of brightly colored eggs.
Plates of chicken and brisket, country ham, corn pudding and green-leaf
salad will cover picnic tables or parish kitchen counters. The young and
the old, the regular attendee, and the rarely seen will gather to
celebrate Easter. And it will all be special, it will all be good.
And
behind it all will be the hope that keeps us coming back year after
year, the belief that this ancient feast we celebrate is more than some
mere observance of an unexplainable empty tomb. Behind it all is the
hope that "Yes, it is true - He has risen indeed."
The
story of the empty tomb is a strange story. It was a strange experience
for Mary and the other women. It was and very much still is a story
without precedent, something that stuns and astonishes.
In
other words, neither I, nor any other teacher of the Gospels can
explain Easter in a way that makes it reasonable or rational or easy to
comprehend. It doesn't work like part of the Krebs cycle. It isn't from
an Eastern wisdom teaching or a category of special literary devices. It
just is what it is - an empty tomb.
The
resurrection is shocking because it means ultimately that God
accomplishes redemption in and through material reality, in and through
the stuff that we are made of, in and through flesh and blood, in and
through human life and human death. Resurrection in all its mystery
suggests that at the most fundamental level of existence, from the
quantum level to the biological level, to the level of the stars
themselves, God is actively involved in his creation, that God is behind
everything that we see, creating, nurturing and redeeming - as the
Mystery of all mysteries.
If
in my life I have come to understand the mystery of Easter at all, it
isn't because of what I have come to know intellectually about it. My
understanding of Easter comes from being a child of God, from being one
who has been redeemed again and again from my own "Good Friday"
experiences. Likewise, my understanding comes from witnessing the same
miracle of redemption at work in the lives of others around me whom I
love, care for and to whom I am privileged to minister. In fact,
perhaps what I experience is not "understanding" in the classic sense of
what that term means at all, but more of a kind of "knowing". After
being gently and lovingly clobbered over the head time and time again by
the grace of God, how could one not "know" about the resurrection?!
And
something else I know is the promise that accompanies the empty tomb -
that Jesus is not there, that he has gone to Galilee to meet his
disciples. We are told that Galilee is "where the action is". In my
experience, "the action" is where the Eucharist is being served. It's
where children laugh and run wild through the grass while adults sit at
tables enjoying ham biscuits, barbequed chicken wings and three types of
iced tea.
This
Easter I will think about all of you as you celebrate the mystery of
the resurrection. And my heart will be warmed from knowing that the Lord
has risen indeed because he has risen in parishes and places and faces
across our diocese. And I will give thanks for you and for God's Church
in the world, and for the power that binds us together in our love for
the Lord Jesus Christ. And, above all, with great anticipation, I will
be listening to hear - from every corner of Southern Virginia - your
"Alleluias"!
+Holly
