What an Easter

By any measure, this was an extraordinary season for Lent and Easter.  As recently as March 7,  the cover art for our worship bulletin was a photo of the two feet of snow piled up outside the parsonage kitchen.  Within three weeks of that Sunday, daffodils were blooming in the garden, birds were singing before dawn, and the air temperatures seemed more like those of mid-June.  Everything changed so quickly.  Even after the long weeks of Lent, then, it seemed startling to realize that Easter had already arrived on the doorstep.

I know that I am really a creature of habit, even as the necessary habits keep changing.  I tend to acclimate myself to my current conditions fairly quickly, and that tends to help me avoid the depths of despair, regardless of what is happening.  On the other hand, I often find it difficult to imagine that things might really change radically for the better.  The current circumstances just seem to reflect "the way of the world."  Political parties often seem dominated by money and the temptation to pander; major parts of the news media seem infected by partisanship and invective; the economy continues to struggle; climate change seems to be escalating; and so many people everywhere seem hopelessly focused on narrow self-interest or anger.

But Easter is a reminder that things can change suddenly.  None of the women approaching Jesus' tomb on third day after his crucifixion expected to find anything but a corpse to anoint.  When they excitedly returned to find the disciples, no one believed the good news they reported.  Reports that radically challenge our assumptions about the natural order of things can be hard to accept, even when the report is hopeful.

Back when I worked for AT&T in the late 80's, one of my work colleagues suggested at the cafeteria lunch table that Soviet Premier Gorbachev would be unable to limit his policy of "glasnost" to a modest increase of individual liberty for Soviet citizens.  Based only on his observation of the televised news reports, my friend had concluded that we were about to witness what he called the "dissolution of the Soviet Empire."  The rest of us thought his conclusion was ridiculous; we couldn't imagine any aspect of the world scene more permanent and predictable than the continuation of the Soviet Union as the dominant threat to America.  But he was right: within a year or two, all of the communist governments of the Warsaw Pact, including that of the Soviet Union, had collapsed.

It is easy to imagine hard and difficult times continuing indefinitely; but it takes an act of faith to imagine a radically better future, and an act of faith to start making it happen, as if all things really are possible for God.  This is a time to imagine great things.  This is a time to start fresh.  Christ is risen!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Dan