Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023
Dear Fellow Believers in the Risen Jesus,
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
By this time, I trust that you all – snow notwithstanding – have attended Easter morning services and celebrated with your communities of faith the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! For some, Easter dinner is being enjoyed. For others, the Easter egg hunt is just beginning! And still, others (especially clergy, church musicians, altar guilds, lay readers, etc.) are settling in for a long-awaited Easter Day nap. Alleluia!
Kim and I observed Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil with different churches in the Black Hills Deanery, culminating with an Easter Morning service at St. Thomas in Sturgis. It’s always a blessing to share the worship space with our Diocesan clergy and hear them celebrate or preach.
On Good Friday, for example, the Rev. Evelyn Weaver of St. James, Belle Fourche, focused her homily on Pontius Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” and the truth of Jesus’ cross – namely, the truth of the depths of God’s love for us through Jesus’ death and passion.
While listening to Mother Evelyn’s homily, a familiar scene from the movie, A Few Good Men, came to mind for some odd reason! The scene I am speaking of is when Jack Nicholson’s character yells, “You can’t handle the truth!” – and I found myself wondering if Jesus ever thought about replying to Pontius Pilate – and to the religious leaders and people of his day – and to the religious leaders and people of our own day – and to me – with that response (but, hopefully, without Jack Nicholson’s anger!). “What is truth, Jesus?” we ask, with an honest sense of sincereness – and yet Jesus’ response is that his truth, and his love, is something that our limited minds and hearts simply cannot handle. It is too deep, too broad, and too high to comprehend fully, much less put into action.
That does not mean, however, that we do not try!
As limited as we are, and sometimes sorely so – and as believers in and followers of the risen Christ – we spend the entirety of our mortal lives trying to grasp the depths of God’s love for us through Jesus AND the entirety of our mortal lives trying to put this love into action through our words and actions. This is how we bring Jesus into our families and communities – and this is how we, like the two Marys, take the Easter message to others. Yes, at times, we do so with the same mixture of fear and joy that they had – but, like the two Marys, we also have the risen Jesus. And when the risen Jesus is with us, we find ourselves ever so closer to the truth of how much God loves us through Jesus Christ. We may not fully understand it – and we may not be able to fully handle it – but we are closer to both goals when we stay close to the one who brought it in the first place.
So by all means, let us enjoy our Easter dinners, Easter egg hunts, and Easter naps! And…at the same time…let us resolve to share the truth that Jesus has brought us with others at the first opportunity we are given!
For the Lord is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Faithfully, Bp. Jonathan