April 3, 2024

Is the Easter event an event that happens for you or to you? My guess is some combination of the two; or add another favorite preposition before “you.” I invite you to read one of my favorite Easter poems, “Easter Exultet” by James Broughton:

Shake out your qualms.
Shake up your dreams.
Deepen your roots.
Extend your branches.
Trust deep water
and head for the open,
even if your vision
shipwrecks you.
Quit your addiction
to sneer and complain.
Open a lookout.
Dance on a brink.
Run with your wildfire.
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut.
Not dawdling.
Not doubting.
Intrepid all the way
Walk toward clarity.
At every crossroad
be prepared
to bump into wonder.
Only love prevails.
En route to disaster
insist on canticles.
Lift your ineffable
out of the mundane.
Nothing perishes;
nothing survives;
everything transforms!
Honeymoon with Big Joy!

Which line captures your attention and imagination? “Not dawdling” always makes me chuckle. I often used to say, “I am not procrastinating, I am dawdling.” “You are closer to glory / leaping an abyss / than upholstering a rut” strikes as true and offers me encouragement when I reflect upon what I call “my own well-furnished rut.”

I believe the word Easter, like the word faith, should be a verb. We are told that the stone which was rolled in front of the tomb was a very large stone. It follows that God did a fair amount of work to roll the stone back from the tomb. Should we not also do some “work” to make this Easter event a reality in our own lives?

Rev. Eric