Sunday, April 7, 2013

April 2013

Easter 2013, from the chair of Canon Francis:

“Christ is Risen”
“He is Risen Indeed”
“Alleluia”

So Eastern Orthodox Christians greet one another on Easter Day. In times past there was another custom I think I may have shared with you. They danced in a double circle and greeted each oncoming person by  taking a hard boiled egg from a basket and cracking  it against the egg of the other person as they sang  “Christ is Risen”.

The cracking open of the egg symbolized the opening of the Tomb. Perhaps we could sing when we find an egg on our Easter Egg Hunt. Somehow the chocolate bunny does not cut it or have any meaning.

I once overheard, in a restaurant, a women say, “I love Easter” and then in a rather superior tone “Of course I do not believe all that about the resurrection of Jesus.” How sad. It is so sad to believe that our human brain can understand everything even the workings of the Almighty God the Creator of the Universe. We may not be able to understand but we can experience His love and the joy that love brings as we reach out and share it with others. We may not all be able to understand scientific realities but we can experience spiritual realities and pass on the compassion generated by His love. God is love and His love gives power and strength, His love gives us discernment and wisdom, and is revealed to us by the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus on the cross and in the empty Tomb.

It was also revealed in the lives of the people of the Church which grew from a bewildered few in Jerusalem to a worldwide community of people of many nations and denominations.

This is the freedom He promised Israel.

Jesus rose again and is alive in us.

Alleluia!