Archives: May 2006

Rector's Reflections

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5)

There are a series of nightmares called “the student's dream,” but priests, organists, choir directors, or altar guild directors can have such a nightmare especially just before Easter.

The dreamer dreams that he or she comes to church on Easter morning, turns on the lights in the church and discovers that the church is just as stark and bare as it was on Good Friday. The Easter lilies weren't delivered and no one came and set up the altar or decorated the church. A quick check of the answering machine and e-mail reveals one message after another from the members of the choir, the lectors, the chalice bearers, the organist, the ushers, the acolytes, and all the crew responsible for the Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter Brunch that they aren't coming. The copy machine is broken and there is no coffee. Fortunately you wakeup before you see the faces of all those who are coming to church on Easter morning.

Of course it is just a nightmare, but it does leave us with an Easter question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” All of the things that we do to help us celebrate THE day and THE season of the church year can be great spiritual tools or distractions - dead things that divert our attention away from the Good News of Easter. He is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia, Alleluia! Alleluia. Our true feast that day is with one another, in community, and with the Risen Christ, where we once again dare to eat the bread of heaven and drink from the cup of salvation. Our nightmares uncover our high expectations and reveal our wavering level of Easter hope.

The Easter Gospel reminds us that Jesus sent word that the disciples were to leave Jerusalem and to go to Galilee . Jerusalem had become a nightmare place for them. They had locked themselves up in a room with fear and trembling. Galilee was home. Jesus sent them home. Later Jesus sends them back to Jerusalem but first he needed to be with them in a familiar and comforting place.

Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men's souls.” Both our nation and our beloved Episcopal Church are experiencing trying times. There are so many national crises that are so overwhelming at times that it is all we can do to remember them, much less try to think constructively about what we can do to be a part of the solution and not continue to allow ourselves to be part of the problem. The issues before the General Convention this summer are also trying and will demand some measure of concentration in order to keep them in balance with what is really important –our relationship with the Risen Christ.

During the next trying months, my prayer for all of us is that we will go to our own Galilee , St. Theodore's, every Sunday morning and even during the week and celebrate the Resurrection in community. My prayer is that we will come filled with Easter hope and be able to enter into the full life of the community of faith. Then we will be able to go back out into the world of Jerusalem prepared to face the fear producing realities of high fuel prices and our need to go get groceries, visit the doctor, take the children places, and yes still have recreational experiences.

God has work for us to do and I do not believe that we can do that work locked up in our homes creating our own nightmares. Every Sunday is an Easter Sunday. See you in church.

Fr. Ken †