Easter Tuesday: Where I've Been

Dear Ones,

For you who have read this blog during Lent, it probably feels as if I've ghosted on you. I did disappear.

I tried to write a post titled: "Friday of Holy Week: What's so "Good" about it?"

But this year, Good Friday came to my congregation in the death-- the wholly unexpected death-- of one of our beloved members and Ruling Elders. It stayed right through Easter Sunday, with another death-- expected, but no less devastating, another beloved member and long-time leader. Pillars, both. Irreplaceable.

In that hour, words failed me.

There are surely words to say about Good Friday as we observe it in the Christian community, words to say about the Passion of Jesus Christ and how it is described in the gospel accounts and how it was understood by the early church.

But I didn't have access to those words last week.

On Easter Sunday I tried to share a message of hope that frankly acknowledged grief:

The grief of Mary Magdalene, not so easily dispelled, even with Jesus standing right in front of her...

Our own grief, the grief not only of my congregation, but also of each individual.... not easily dispelled.

Nor would we want it to be. Grief is the inevitable outcome when we love one another, as Jesus did, to the end. Grief is something to be honored, and lived faithfully, as all seasons of life.

We are in the midst of the season of Easter, the great fifty-day feast of victory for our God. There are "Alleluias" to be sung, loudly and joyfully!

Let that be, I pray, a balm in our grief. Let the words of resurrection ring true in our ears and our hearts. Let it be our constant hope, even as we honor the grief that is with us and in us now.