Alleluia, Christ is risen! Happy Easter! Each of us has our own way to acknowledge and relate to the greatest mystery of the Way of Jesus, the continuing cycle of death and resurrection that seems built into creation itself like a great heartbeat: winter and summer, night and day, birth and death, the cycles of the moon and the tides of the ocean. Imagine a great drumbeat pulsing through all of time, in every atom of the universe, in your own body through your heart, in the exhale and inhale of your breathing. This is the beautiful, heartbreaking, joyful rhythm of the cosmos, which followers of Jesus engage in an intentional way by allowing some things to die with Christ, and asking the Spirit’s life to blow new life into others.
If you were not at St. John’s on Easter Sunday morning, I encourage you to watch, listen to or read (in my opinion watching or listening is better, but it’s up to you!) my Easter sermon. After that, consider taking the following questions into your prayer, meditation, morning walk or coffee or commute:
If I were to risk everything and imagine that the change I desperately need is possible, what could I allow to die with Christ? What would I ask God’s Spirit to raise to new life?
If I were to risk everything and imagine that the change WE need (whether the “we” is your family, St. John’s, Minneapolis, or some other community) is possible, what is my part to play in this change? What would I imagine could die with Christ, and what would be born?
Speak your simple prayers about all of these things to God.
I pray and sing you joy, healing, imagination and hope this Eastertide.
In all the holy names of God, whose essence is love,
Lisa
