Easter:  It’s about love

            Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!

            The sounds of Easter proclaim new birth and new beginnings.  Indeed for those areas of our country that experience the four seasons, Easter comes at the same time as new blooms and new leaves.  The starkness of winter makes way for the painter’s palate of yellows and pinks and greens. 

            This year Easter is coming at a time when our new grandson has been birthed into our lives.  Once again I have experienced the incredible joy known when my own son and daughter were born and when my other two grandchildren were born.  That feeling can only be expressed as “love beyond words”. 

            That’s the message of Easter:  “love beyond words”.  God so loves us that all of creation is opened up for us and we see a glimpse of the sacred amid the mundane world we usually notice.  Note I added “usually notice”.  For our God is ever and always showing us new hope and Easter promise every day.  We just don’t usually take the time to notice.  Easter directs our vision and opens our eyes.

Easter invites us to experience “love beyond words”.

             There is a challenge in Easter also.  While those of us who experienced God’s love touching our lives know the power of such joy, many have not experienced real love from anyone lately (perhaps ever).  There are far too many people who have given up on love or joy or hope.  Many give a skeptical look to the way we in the church dish out our  formulas for finding love.  That’s because we have a tendency to say the words but not do the words.  Our God already loves each person who feels unloved.  Our God already loves them beyond words.  But do we?  Will we?

            Carrying the message of unconditional love in our hearts but not doing the work of unconditional love to one another is putting the Christ back in the tomb to be released one day a year for a celebration. 

            We see in the events of our times that people who have felt bullied, unloved, misunderstood, underappreciated have found ways to act out their hurt and anger in frightful ways.  We have ability to make a difference.  Perhaps it is a neighbor youth, a co-worker, an acquaintance at the gym class, the day laborers, the neighbors fearing their families will be broken by ICE deportations, the homeless men and women on the street corners, the women seeking safety in domestic abuse shelters, the differently-abled facing discrimination – all these people and so many more need us to get to know them and know their circumstances.  They need to know that they can be loved beyond words by somebody. 

            Easter morning – and every day – we proclaim the Good News that      GOD LOVES US BEYOND WORDS.  Hopefully we do it through our actions as well as through our words.  The world is aching to experience love beyond words.

            Christ is Risen!  Christ is risen indeed!

Grace and peace,

Rev. Clara