Just a year ago there was some hope that we’d resume in-person worship just in time for Easter--the church’s premiere celebration of life over death! Obviously that hope was premature. Instead, many of my colleagues’ experiments with online worship overloaded Facebook, YouTube, and other outlets we’d be cobbling together for only a matter of weeks at that point. We were lucky enough that our only “Zoom disaster” came weeks later on a random Sunday that I’ve mostly blessedly forgotten.
And I’m really, really ready to see people in person instead of through a screen, but I don’t want to rush anyone or anything. Remember: the first sign of the resurrection was not anyone meeting Jesus in the flesh, but some of his female disciples encountering his empty tomb. The accounts of his appearances after that vary, but all were brief, and importantly, tended to involve his closest followers initially not recognizing him!
We know to expect the risen Christ now, but his first disciples had no idea what was waiting for them that morning. We long for the familiar sights and sounds of Easter, but that first Easter was totally unexpected. I think that’s what we’re called to be prepared for now--good news at unlikely times, in unlikely places, sometimes looking back and realizing--Aha! Just when we’ve given up hope, we’ll look back and see that things are already better.
We’ve already figured out how to share Christ’s body and blood--at least we’ve trusted the promise that we’ve been sharing that--even through these strange days. And so we trust God to carry us into whatever is next, in starts and fits and with halting progress, but into the future God has prepared for us, individually, and together in Christ.
Pastor Jon
