Quarantine Resurrection
What does
resurrection look like when we feel like we’ve been in a tomb for over a year?
What is new
about life when four walls have shrunk down around us until we can’t breathe?
Spring flowers
dance in the gentle breeze. They bob and nod together with no fear of death.
Various snowbirds
are home gobbling worms and building nests. Some take flight and go to the
highest branch or to the feeder prepared for them. No limits on movement. They
sing full throttle.
Will the
Easter Bunny wear a mask as the baskets are delivered to the children this year?
Churches questioning.
Congregants taking sides. Who will be open? Who will remain closed? Who decides?
Who knows for certain what is safe and what is just a longing?
Empty Easter
dinner tables, or full?
Who’s
vaccinated and who isn’t?
It’s our
second Quarantine Resurrection.
Last year
was a novelty. We thought restrictions would be lifted by Easter. We made the
best of it when they weren’t.
But there is
nothing novel about this second quarantine resurrection.
All the days
from last Easter to this Easter have taken their toll. Too much death. Too many
tombs. No stones to be rolled away, no empty tombs to discover with joy. Just
death.
And yet…there
have been other Easters draped in black before this year or last. History tells
us of pandemics and war times and hard times when a shroud hung heavy.
Loss and
pain and disruption have been visited on previous generations. We grieve for
them because we can say, “We now understand some of what you have been through.”
And that is what prods us to remember this: The cross and the tomb couldn't hold Jesus.
Every year
on this Great Anniversary death doesn’t get the last word.
Yes, too
many people were healed into eternal life this past year. Too many people are
being healed into eternal life right now as we watch infections and hospitalizations
rise again.
But the tomb
of Jesus Christ will still be empty this Easter morn.
The promise
of eternal life is still our promise.
The hope for
redemption from all the messes we have made as human beings, is more than a
hope. It’s reality.
Jesus Christ
lived and died and lives again. This is our glorious fate.
Yes, we will gather
for worship again – all of us, not just a few. We will sing the hymns, stand
for the Gospel reading, and get chills when we hear the words, “Do not be
afraid…he is not here, he has been raised, as he said.”
Easter
dinner tables will be heavy-laden with feasts for family and friends. And we
will be able to see their faces, not just their eyes.
Spring
flowers will delight us. The snowbirds will teach us to fly again.
Jesus will
lead us from the dark tombs we have grieved in, and into the glorious light of
his healing grace.
That’s what Jesus
does year after year, and generation after generation.
It’s not
novel. It’s something like a miracle.
Jesus Christ
is risen!
He is risen
indeed!
Amen.
