The Resurrection is in sight! Those words are so poignant this year with the worldwide suffering caused by Covid-19, and the glimmer of hope for the future making its way into society, as vaccines become available, and willing souls show up during their ‘slot’ to get their shot!
I get it, really. The world got smaller, and the grief got more real.
Every year, I pick a ‘theme’ for special times of the Church Year – Easter, the Resurrection of Our Lord, is an easy one – it’s about New Life, it’s about God’s Love – it’s about Rebirth.
So for 2021, my theme (and Holy Cross Lutheran -Salem’s theme) is “Hope for a New Day”. In the musical parts of my heart, I hear “Morning Has Broken” playing, and then maybe “Now the Green Blade Rises”. The earth is surely breaking forth (it’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere), and Christ’s Resurrection is celebrated!
I invite you to go take pictures – outside, inside, of plants blooming, or of children laughing, or whatever touches you – and send them to us, or post them here. (We’ll try to get them printed for the bulletin board at church, too!) Because we need to share this exhuberance, this revelation of Hope. Christ is risen from the Dead, and Hope is born anew in every heart.
But, I have to take a pausIe here. Because this year, perhaps more than others, has reminded me, and maybe you, too that Hope is real, and has been here all along. Hope has been visible throughout these dark days. Children have been born, families have connected in new ways, thoughts have arisen that had no time to emerge in days past. So, as much as I lean into this idea of “Hope for a New Day” I am reminded of glimpses of Hope throughout these days of Lent past, throughout a pandemic that began to affect our lives in the Pacific Northwest in March, 2020. Hope has not been lost – just sometimes hard to find.
As I have found exhuberance in my own heart, and in others, as we rejoice in small things – visiting the Oregon Garden with the dogs – picking up tulips at EZ Orchards for our table – my mind reminds me of the year we have just lived. Nearly every day the news reports gave us numbers – of ill, of dead, of expectations. My personal prayers for those struggling with illness and loss have been an important anchor in my own life. Knowing God loves us in the midst of incredible loss has kept me sane. As the numbers continued to climb all year, and the loss piled up in drifts in my heart, I think of Saint Teresa of Avila, who wrote, “The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too”. I found comfort this year in this phrase. God walked with us in all this loss. God walks with us still, offering small moments of comfort and growth along the way.
In this past year, while the world has groaned in loss, at our house, we got pictures in the mail from a granddaughter far away, we got links to family far away as they enjoyed small things – a silly dog, a sunny day, Girl Scout cookies delivered, and more. Hope has been present in this past year, just sometimes harder to find.
And so, this year I also joined a Facebook group, “Calvin and Hobbes Rides Again” and enjoyed remembering Bill Waterston and his comic strip – it is 25 years now since he stopped drawing and publishing the strip that shared the life of a small boy and his stuffed tiger. And I smiled a lot – in remembrance of the exhuberance of life that a small child can teach us.
There is Hope For A New Day for each of us this year. And if today is a day when you aren’t feeling it – if the sadness and loss is too much today – put the Hope to the side, and come back to it another day. Hope remains. Touch the Hope.
I’ll be preaching on John 20 this Easter morning. It’s not an exhuberant passage. The big moment comes when Mary Magdalene, who has encountered the risen Christ outside the tomb but doesn’t recognize him is called by name, “Mary”, and she allows herself to Hope. “Teacher” she says. As she rejoins the disciples, her words speak of what has happened, “I have seen the Lord.” There is Hope For A New Day, friends. May you be blessed by it. – Pastor Patricia+