A Message from the Rector                                    Easter 2008

         It takes a certain amount of faith to write these newsletter messages, again today an Easter message while it is still Lent. And today it is really lent, Lent with a capital L. Winter is still very much upon us, and tonight we are expecting still more snow. Will we see even a glimpse of Spring for our Easter celebration, or will our celebration be straining to proclaim the mystery of rebirth, amid the winter’s snow and our other anxious burdens? Sometimes I have to admit that it takes courage and faith to continue to trust that God longs to restore us to our full humanity, despite the evidence of war, sickness and despair that we see and sense around us.

 I take comfort in understanding that whatever doubts and discouragements we might be experiencing, they would pale in comparison to the situation that Mary and the other disciples would have felt on that first Easter morning. Mary went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and having faced the worst that she could imagine only two days earlier, still, she could not have had any hint of what she would find when she went to the tomb, carrying spices and oil. And even as she saw the stone rolled away, she was still expecting only to have her worst memories reconfirmed, and her greatest disappointments reinforced. Yet what she eventually discovers shakes up her world, and the world around her: Resurrection, God making right, in His own way, everything that was horribly wrong. And because for Mary, God’s love seemed so evident in the Resurrection, she and the others could come to know and trust that God’s love bursts forth in and around our worst fears and experiences. For us that can only mean one thing: God’s triumphant and yet humble love still, after two thousand years, comes in the shape of an empty tomb, and in the disciples’ continuing encounter with the risen Christ! So let us keep the faith for each other, cherish our empty tombs, and anticipate with joy our encounters in the world with the risen Christ who will do what he has always done: call us to faith, teach us the meaning of our scriptures, and break bread with us again and again.

              Finally, I wish each one of you a prayerful and Spirit filled Holy Week that bursts forth in a glorious Easter, in our lives, and in the life of this community.                    

                       In Christ, Karen V