Easter Sundays come and go and each one is likely to catch you in a different place in life; Child, Youth, Twenties, Thirties and….you get the drift! Each life season a different way of seeing and hearing the remarkable answer of God to the puzzle of death and injustice, tragedy and sin.
I remember going to a sunrise Easter service at Lee Memorial Gardens in Virginia with my parents when I was about 8 or 9. I wanted to go back to bed! It was nice and all but REALLY! 6:00am!!
Easter was different at about 11 after my grandfather died, the first family member to die that I was very close to. Then at 14…my father. Then for all the years since….well most of you have had something akin to what I just said. One DOES “grow in wisdom and in stature” in the face of reality both harsh as well as happy.
Yes, many an Easter Sunday is just bright and cheery with a hundred things in your life to go on about in joy and thanksgiving. You could leap for joy if your knees work well! Some Easter Sundays….nothing, “nada,” it hurts too much in either body, mind, or spirit.
What we are ultimately given from first to last, regardless of the time or condition on earth we have, is the Final Word from our Creator: “I have made you, I have provided a Way for you in Jesus raised from the dead, and what I began in you I will bring to completion.”
It’s what we have on any Easter Sunday. Or any day of the week for that matter! Sometimes it catches us with a hearty laugh and sometimes with a face all tear stained. If laughing, our faith reminds us that the best joke is finally on the Devil; if crying, our faith tells us “this too shall pass….”
For most of the Gospels there is mostly walking. On Easter morning Biblical people pretty much RUN! Breathless! Something has happened! Is happening! And will happen! If you can’t run anymore…SOMEONE will still get you up and moving! Then you will only cry tears of joy!
Thanks be to God~~!
See you Sunday! Easter!
Pastor Barry