A Carton of Eggs - Cross

 

Dear Friends,

This is a year like no other.  For many of us it has been a challenging year, a year of loss and rebirth, missed opportunities to spend time with our families and loved ones, and grief. Yet, through it all, we remain faithful. We remember the shared embraces, the warm good wishes and, especially, the times we have spent together with our church family. The Lenten season here at Resurrection in 2015, for instance, remains a powerful image for many and has stayed with me to this day.

 

Easter week is the holiest season of the church calendar, but it is also the most emotional for many of us. During the Lenten period, I lose sight of Christ’s ever approaching resurrection and focus only on the pain of his death. It does not really occur to me that at the end of the story, Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. He comes back to life and sits at the right hand of our Father, where we worship him anew every year at Easter.

My mind can absorb the facts, the legends and stories that make up the Bible, but it is hard for my heart to really take it all in. It is starting to soften gradually. Listening to Pastor Kimber’s sermon that Maundy Thursday all those years ago, I felt my heart letting down a sweet, tender milk that continues to nourish me every year that I attend services, even in these times of virtual worship.

When I followed Pastor Kimber’s calm voice moving quietly throughout the sanctuary on Good Friday that year, watched her carry the heavy wooden cross and place it reverently across the altar, I fell in love. With the Christ Jesus, with the Apostles, and with our Heavenly Father. Our tiny, insignificant church took on a special significance. I was drinking in the Holy Spirit, you were all there with me, and the Pastor was bringing it to life for the entire congregation. We were caught up in a story that took place thousands of years ago, but it is new for us with each telling. Every year it is as if we are hearing it, seeing it, for the first time.

We may be forced to forego our fellowship hour, or hearing our shared voices raised in song and, at times, even lose our physical worship space, but we will have them again. Just as we can look back over all the years we have worshiped together, we can look forward to coming together again in the years to come. This year has been a year like no other, but we have stayed strong in faith, continued to pray for each other, and weathered every storm that has come our way. May we continue in peace for many years to come.

 

God Bless,

Heather Clarke