Friday night my husband colored Easter eggs. We have a sort of ritual about it. It came about mostly because as a working priest (meaning before the Pandemic) I was usually pretty busy until the night of Good Friday when I could, at last, collapse a little bit, before Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil, and the Big Bang of the church year—Easter itself. Hats and brass bands and egg hunts and a zillion communions (don’t get me wrong here, it is glorious!).
But that one quiet evening we could make colorful eggs, and know that in them we have a sort of investment in future deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, etc. And that in that beautiful bowl of colorful eggs we have a visual symbol of the symbiosis that is the love we share.
For both of us it is often this love that sustains us individually.
I give thanks for his love constantly, even as I grumble and complain. (That’s my right as a husband, to complain; right?)
Easter is about connection. Easter is all about learning that life is all about connection. The Easter collect prays “grant us so to die daily to sin.” Don’t let that word “sin” scare you or fool you, all it means is “disconnection.” If you are willing to stay plugged in, you will “evermore live in the joy of his resurrection” (as the collect also prays) because you will evermore live in the joy of your own eternal and constant resurrection.
As far as God is concerned we all are God’s creatures, each one of us created in God’s own image. Peter [Acts 10:34-43] tells the crowd proudly how he was there through Jesus’ ministry and through the excruciating moments of the crucifixion and it’s true, he was there—but the point is, we all are there, always, if we just pay attention. We—you and me—are witnesses of God’s grace, of resurrection, of joy. Eat, drink, love, tend, nourish, listen, see.
And give thanks, always [Psalm 118:14-29]. Say thank you with every breath. Say thank you for every breath. Because it is breath that brings God’s Spirit into your biological envelope. Realize that in every moment in which you live God is acting in creation; rejoice, sing, be glad, give thanks.
Remember to remember; remember to think about love, remember when you are about to “dis” someone that that person’s heart breaks too [Colossians 3:1-4 “seek the things that are above”]. You know, it’s really hard work, I’m old and I still muck it up almost daily. But keep trying, that’s all God asks of us. Keep trying, because that means you are connected.
Last week I wrote about how the critical witnesses of the crucifixion were the outcasts; now here on the day of resurrection we see the same if we just take a moment to pay attention, in this story [John 20:1-18]. It isn’t Peter the leader who is first out of the gate, it is “the other disciple, the one Jesus loved” whose heart is broken, who leaps up and runs, it is “the other disciple” who outruns Peter, who reaches the empty tomb first, and yet doesn’t enter (because, as you and I know, we who are outcast are always aware that we are perhaps not welcome). But then the one Jesus loved comes back, reassured, reinvigorated by his love, and this time he looks in, and goes in, and sees, and believes.
And then here comes Mary Magdalene, the least of the least of the women in Jesus’ entourage. And there Jesus is, sitting on a stone talking to her and she thinks so little of herself that she cannot imagine a risen Jesus will speak with her, so she thinks he must be a grounds-keeper (I know it says “gardener”). Until he calls her by name.
As you and I know, in those long nights of the soul, Jesus, God, calls us by name. And in those moments we know we are truly with God.
That is the joy of Easter. That we know we are truly with God. That we experience in our souls the vitality of connection.
LGBTQ+, you name it, we are created in God’s own image. How else would the first disciple to witness resurrection be “the one Jesus loved”?
Happy Easter!
The Sunday Of The Resurrection, or Easter Sunday, Principal Service ear A 2023 RCL (Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118: 1-2. 14-24 Confitemini Domino; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18)
©2023 The Rev.Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 