RKT2 - On the way to May...

May is almost here and in the words of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, "Spring has sprung and joyfully the birds welcome it with joyful song." Except it has not been very joyful. Finally exiting the depths of Lent into the bright light of Easter, I had hoped that the spring would be different. But now crushing May in its tragic grip are two events. One, the devastating tragedy at Virginia Tech University in which 32 young people were killed needlessly by a lone gunman. On the the other side, will be our somber remembrances on Memorial Day weekend, of loved ones who have died and those men and women who have given their lives for our freedom in years past and in the current conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is hard to be joyful when we are so surrounded by reminders of violence, human brokenness and betrayal and our own mortality. That Easter happiness seems so far away.

For me, Easter is also where our hope must lie. I remember that before that first Easter long ago, the same deep reminders of violence, human brokenness and betrayal and their own human mortality haunted Jesus' followers. My hope, indeed our hope cannot and should not be in our own ability to vindicate violence, to banish betrayal or destroy death. The Easter promise is not that we have the power to defeat these. The Easter promise is that God does, but not in the way that we want. The Easter promise is that in the life of Jesus Christ, God enters our world, God gifts forgiveness and God creates new life out of the depths of death.

The same is true now. Jesus is alive and that life continues among us. In that life God even now enters those places of violent, hopeless, betraying death whether in Virginia, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and among us. Even now God gifts forgiveness. And our call to faith, is to wait and watch for that surprising Easter moment. When God calls life out of death even today, we are called to run to the empty tomb and welcome it in joyful song.