We shout through muted masks, “Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!” While still in our disbelief and wondering we go out to be the good news for others. We hold one another in grief, we speak up when we see systemic oppression, we stand with our neighbors who are hurting. And in sharing our scars with one another, new life springs forth. Resurrection and rebirth are enfleshed within each other’s scars. We proclaim to one another, “Can you believe it?” Well…no and yes. The good news of Christ’s resurrection and God’s embodied grace is hard to imagine sometimes, and yet it is the best news I’ve heard all day.
Sermon 4/26/20: Shall we stand still or walk forward? (Pr. Craig Mueller)
With heavy hearts, you may be more open than ever to see Easter revealed among us in surprising ways. You may be more open than ever to envision a new society, a new church, a new way of walking on the earth. You may be more open than ever to share your deepest heartache and listening with compassion as others do the same. You will indeed walk on, as the beloved song from Carousel names. “Walk on, with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone.” Community, indeed. But now more than ever, we may also find the gift in standing still. In being with what is. In expressing our fears, our tears, our hopes, our prayers. In leaving silence for someone else to cry or to lament. With burning hearts, with open eyes—and with one another—we will walk on. And I am sure of this: through the resurrection of Christ, a new tomorrow, filled with Easter hope, is already dawning.