From the Pastor
An Easter prayer from that great saint of the church, Henri
Nouwen: “Dear Jesus, you once were condemned; you are still being condemned.
You once carried your cross; you are still carrying your cross. You once died;
you are dying still. You once rose from the dead; you are still rising from the
dead. I look at you, and you open my eyes to the way in which your passion,
death and resurrection are happening among us every day. But within me there is
a deep fear of looking at my own world. You say to me: ‘Do not be afraid to
look, to touch, to heal, to comfort and to console.’ I listen to your voice
and, as I enter more deeply into the painful, but also hope-filled lives of my
fellow human beings, I know that I enter more deeply into your heart…”
After all the preparation and planning and yes, worry, in anticipation of Holy Week and Easter, it is tempting, at least for a preacher – this preacher – to see Easter as an ending. We did it! The stone is rolled away. The songs have been sung and the lilies delivered. Don’t have to think about it for another year! Must be time to go fishing!
Yes, tempting to see Easter as an ending. Except…what if it’s true? At Easter we dare to proclaim that Christ has conquered the powers of darkness and death. Try as they might, they could not withstand the power of the new life he brings. Not even the tomb could hold him. If that is true, then hold everything. Forget any talk of an ending. We have only just begun. The story we tell at Easter continues into history, into human life, and as Nouwen suggests, draws us along with it, inviting us to enter ever more deeply into life. The spirit of Jesus is now at large in the world. Frankly, it might have been easier if the stone had never been moved. Because now, Easter is not only a story we tell, but also a story we live, our hearts now joined with his heart and with the hurting, yearning heart of our world.
Gene
