Pastor's Message
SPIRIT STEPTS/EASTER 2010
The robins moved back this past week, or maybe I just noticed them, anyway, they are here. Seeing a robin was, and is, to me always a sure sign of spring. I am seeing signs of spring, signs of new life, popping up around me wherever I look. The red-winged black birds are sitting next to the road as I drive by the marshes, the tulips and daffodils are about two inches above the ground next to my home, the bees are flying out of the hive, and the eagle, that I have been watching nest, is sitting on two eggs, yes, signs of new life are all around me. I drove by a wooded area and all the maple trees had buckets hanging from them, so I assume that the sap is returning to the trees. Much of the grass is still brown and dead looking, but if you push away the dead top you find new green shoots hiding beneath. Yes, new life is breaking in all around us.
It doesn’t take long for spring to be in full bloom, for the brown to give way to the green, the swelling buds to burst into green leaves and the robins to become a common sight. As that happens, as the newness becomes common, some of the excitement, some of the wonder becomes dulled. Given our human nature maybe it can be no other way. Our life is cyclic, the new becomes old, excitement gives way to the mundane, the old passes away and a new cycle begins.
There is a sense in which our spiritual life has the same cycles. Easter is a time that we celebrate the “newness” of life. It is a time that we celebrate the new life that has broken in and is breaking in on us as the Easter People. Yet, even as we celebrate the newness of life, we begin moving into the sameness, the mundane, the boring repetition of the life and death cycle. We may experience the same flatness and may begin to wonder if this Easter thing was all a hoax, a lie told by those who were tired of the cycles.
It seems as though so many people that I have known have died this past year. There has been so much heart ache and tragedy that it seems that a cross is far more real than an empty tomb. At least a cross is concrete; it is something that I can relate to as I feel the pain of those close to my friends that have died. A cross is something I can relate to when I feel the pain of someone who has been told that they have a serious medical problem. A cross is real when I look at the pictures of the devastation cause by earthquakes and floods and drought. A cross seems more real than the nothingness of an empty tomb.
Yet, in the midst of heartache and tragedy, in the midst of pain and suffering, as we feel with those who mourn and cry, we have faith in a God who feels with us in our pain and faith that the empty tomb is not a sign of nothingness but a sign of new life, always breaking in, always fresh and exciting, always new and available. That is the Easter hope. That is the Easter promise!
The robins are back; the tomb is empty. There are signs of new life all around us.
Have a blessed Easter and enjoy the newness of life.
Pastor Bob