This Lent (March 5-April 20), we’ve followed the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between.
One of my usual tropes is that our modern media is so good at proclaiming the bad news, the things that are going wrong the world. They are so good at stoking our mind’s innate propensity for anxiety and fear and getting us all riled up.
There’s a fine line between being aware of what’s going on in the world and discerning how to be proactive about it versus being sucked into a kind of doom-scrolling, small or large-scale.
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday remind us of all the bad news: all the bad behavior, the evil and hypocrisy, the soul-crushing and dignity-denying invasion into people’s lives. It shows us up-close and personal how empire, authoritarians and misguided ideologies ruin individual lives as they seek to tamp down “all that is true, holy, just, pure, lovely and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8) You can read it in the daily news, you can read it in the Passion narratives in all four Gospels. It’s as enduring as humanity itself.
Easter, Resurrection Sunday — in fact every Sunday — is an act of defiance in light of all of the bad news. Resurrection is a statement that all the evil in the world doesn’t have a stranglehold on us. Resurrection reminds us that Hope flows through us. That the core of Jesus’ Earthly ministry, namely courage to love boldly and radically, can endure anything. And through us, with God’s help, it will endure anything.
As we gather this Sunday morning, we reclaim that belief, that promise. We do so with joy, with conviction and with perseverance. As always, I look forward to celebrating the empty tomb with you.
In faith,
Kent
Join us for Holy Week:
Maundy Thursday Worship and Communion – Thursday, April 17, 7pm, Sanctuary
Good Friday Tenebrae Worship – Friday, April 18, 7pm, Sanctuary
Easter Egg Hunt – Saturday, April 19, 9am, Memorial Park
Easter Children’s Church – Sunday, April 20, 9:30am, Sanctuary
Easter Potluck Brunch – Sunday, April 20, 9:30am-11am, Willett Hall
Prelude – Sunday, April 20, 10:45am, Sanctuary
Easter Festival Worship – Sunday, April 20, 11am, Sanctuary
Image credit: “Jesus empty tomb bible” via pixabay.com
