It seems like we’ve been waiting for Easter for a long, long time. And just like that, it’s time to tear “April 12, 2020” page from our desk calendars. Some folks were worried that “Easter wouldn’t happen” this year due to the coronavirus. Perhaps you feel like Easter didn’t happen, or like it passed over too quickly, like a Thanksgiving dinner that has taken days to prepare, and then consumed in less than an hour. Our Conference Minister, Rev. Freeman Parker, (Central Atlantic Conference UCC), in his Easter Message noted that Easter is not a day on the calendar but a way of life. This is the way of resurrection.
While we’ve been waiting for Easter Day to arrive, nature hasn’t paid attention to our calendars, and has gone about her merry way, absorbing nutrients and moisture from the soil and reaching against all odds for the light of the sun. We’ve seen the natural world around us sprouting and growing and blooming, spreading an array of yellows, greens, purples, reds, and pinks along roads, in yards, even reaching up through cracks in sidewalks to enjoy the light. This is the way of resurrection!
We live the way of resurrection through radical acts of love and mercy played out in hospitals and grocery stores and on farms and behind the wheel of semi-trucks and in homes where full-time unexpectedly stay-at-home and-if-they-are-lucky-still-working-virtually-parents (and grandparents) in millions of homes around the world. We live the way of resurrection when, stretched to the breaking point by anxiety and fear, we practice patience, love, grace, kindness, and peace towards those close at hand, and with the stranger. These are the unseen acts of resurrection, happening in private ways, growing towards the light of the world, Jesus, the Christ. These are the sprouts, the blooms, the blossoms of resurrection.
Easter isn’t over! Keep living the way of resurrection today! ~ Anne
Wayfinding 