Dear People of Bethlehem,
Easter is upon us. Now is the time to put away the disciplines of Lent. I wonder about all that disciplines our lives. The morning coffee I make before taking the dog for a walk. The daily work that includes all the things I love about my vocation, and all the things that simply must be done. The bills that need to be paid. These routines are comforting and necessary. But then, there are the other moments in our lives — the Easter moments. The moment a dolphin jumps from the water, the sunrise we glimpse made of pinks and purples, a long awaited visit from a loved one, a doctor saying the cancer is gone. These are the things that take our breath away.
So much of our lives, lies in the liminal space in between. There are the heights of our joys and the depths of our sorrows, and I think many of us are afraid of both. We are afraid to feel too much joy or too much sorrow, least our hearts might break under the weight of it all. Perhaps the routine is simpler, the regular pace of our lives. Yet, Easter is a different kind of moment. In Matthew’s gospel, when the angel told the women that Jesus had been raised, “They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” I love that it was both fear and joy at the same time. It seems so true of the human heart.
Perhaps fear and great joy, together become our hope. Perhaps Easter is the possibility of it all. The possibility that there can be joy, even in our sorrow. That we can feel resurrection in our lives, even in our pain. That sorrow, joy, mercy and grace, do indeed happen all at the same time, and mingle together in the messy, beautiful joy of our lives.
May you be blessed in your Good Friday moments, and in your Easter joys. And may you be blessed in every regular moment in between — for we live in the liminal space of God’s grace. We live between Good Friday’s darkness and Easter’s sunrise. Hope means that God is with us in it all, has promised to join us in it all, and will accompany us through it all.
Blessed Easter, Pastor Laura