Dear Beloved Community,
As Annabelle wisely told me, “something always happens at Easter!” My experience tells me that the “something” has the power to surprise and delight, and always, always make new!
This year’s Easter celebrations were full of life — breakfast together complete with new directories and fun, worship that lifted us in heart and spirit, a room full of beauty and community that gathers despite the rain and lack of a parking lot, and love above all else. What a special, special day!
These other moments of Holy Week will stay with me for a good long while, and perhaps you too. Being led by our children and youth on Palm Sunday, with their hosannas and celebrations. Watching you wash each other’s hands, and pray with embodied hope, and gather again at the table of love. Walking the Stations of the Cross with you, with a string quartet as our guide for the lament. Remembering Jesus’s final hours, and sitting in the uncomfortable ache of the darkness. Waiting through the silence of Saturday. Gathering in our joy on Easter morning – flowering the cross, sharing a meal, extending spirited greetings to one another. Weeping, yet again, as the sounds of brass, bells, organ, choir, and the voices of so many filled our Sanctuary with the good news that “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.”
These movements of Holy Week made our Easter joy precise, didn’t they? Enjoy the pictures in today’s eBlast and video across our social media accounts for a glimpse into these holy days. None of these experiences together would be possible if not for the countless number of you who welcomed guests, set up Stations, planted ferns, organized lilies, flowered the cross, fed the crowds on Easter, served communion, played music, led in worship, helped children wave palms, sang the songs of our faith, and brought the fullness of who you are into our beloved community this week. A special word of gratitude to our Worship Ministry Team, Hospitality Ministry Team, musicians, and staff for their leadership through it all! Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear church!
On this side of Easter, may we not soon forget the hosannas and the remembrances, the bread and cup and basin and towel, the shroud of shadows, the garden of our tears and of our witness, the Love that stirred “early in the morning while it was still dark” and stirs every moment since. For something always happens!
For these good gifts and the God who is giver of them all, we say hallelujah!
Together in God’s work of Love,
Pastor Emily
Ps – Here’s our family’s annual Easter photo! Yes, these children of ours sure are growing!!
