Easter Joy is Easter Love. Alleluia!

The magic of Easter is the magic of new things, of springtime, of sunshine and flowers and let’s just admit it—hope. And yet, the magic of Easter is the magic of old things made new, of regeneration, of sunshine and flowers and springtime yet again and again and again, and the reassurance of that is the reassurance of the certainty of love. And hope.

We know the Easter story so well we sometimes forget to focus on its meaning, the immanent eternal universality of love. God is love, and the actions that help us understand the elements of the Christ event are the actions of transmitting love.

Acts 10: Love shows no partiality. We who are love are witnesses to all that love has accomplished. Everyone who walks in love receives eternal connection to the source and power of love

Psalm 118: Give thanks to love, to the source of love, to the building up of love. Love’s mercy endures for ever. Love is my strength, love is my song, love has become my salvation. Love’s doing is marvelous in every way. On this day love has acted, we rejoice in love with love.

In the story of the resurrection told in John chapter 20, we have clearly a logical family, like the logical families of so many of us who are created with love as God’s LGBTQ people. This logical family is created by love, sustained by love, walking in love, and yet is forced to persist in love when pain is inflicted.

John 20: The “other” disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, outran all the others so powerful was the love and hope within. The “other” disciple saw and believed in what the power of love had done. Mary Magdalene’s love was so powerful he heart was broken, she wept, but angels comforted her. When she saw Jesus she supposed him to be the gardener, who was tending creation, as always, with love. She knew him when he spoke her name. She praised the power of love which had yet again transformed her.

The truth of the resurrection is this: it is not just as an event in history that we honor. Rather, it is a timeless event in our own hearts. We go through cruxifixion and resurrection daily, constantly even, in our lives. We depend on the promise of the eternity of love to restore and replenish us. That is the promise of Christ.

For us in the LGBTQ community, it is the promise that the love with which we are created in love’s very image is not only real but powerful and eternal. It is the knowledge that our loves and logical families are honored by love, that there is always another morning, that the tulips always will bloom in spring, that love is everywhere that we can embrace it.

Easter joy is Easter love. Alleluia!

 

Easter Day Principal Service Year C RCL 2022 (Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24  Confitemini Domino; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 ; John 20:1-18)