Dear sisters and brothers,
We are halfway through Eastertide, contemplating and celebrating together (as best we can in a pandemic!) the mystery and glory of the resurrection of Jesus. Part of that mystery, as I said in my sermon this past Sunday, is that the totality of our embodied human experience has been taken into the presence of God in the flesh of Jesus.
What are you most in touch with right now? Is it relief over the Derek Chauvin trial verdict? Is it grief and anger over continued injustice and violence? Is it hopelessness or fatigue about the pandemic? Is it an interpersonal conflict that is troubling you? Is it perhaps joy or consolation over answered prayer or an unexpected gift or a reconciled relationship? What human experience of sadness, or joy, or anger, or consolation, or suffering, or beauty are you most in touch with right now?
I invite you to imagine that experience, whatever it is, represented in the scars of the resurrected body of Jesus, taken into the presence of God to be healed and redeemed and transformed. All our fear and pain and suffering and grief and regret and joy and consolation is seen and felt and known and honored, and is transformed to become a means of communion with God and each other.
Nothing is wasted, nothing is discarded, it all matters, everything belongs. God is present to all of it. Christ is the life of the world! I pray you are able to dwell deeply in this reality this Eastertide.
Grace and peace,
Fr. Ben
P.S. Tonight our Vestry is meeting to further discuss and discern our protocols and practices with regard to gathering for worship. The pandemic situation has a lot of moving parts, and a lot of factors to consider, and is changing quickly and often, which is demanding we adopt an agile approach to responding to the spiritual and physical needs of our community. Thanks for thinking and praying about this with us!
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