It’s Eastertide.
It's the season of Resurrection.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen !
The Lord is Risen indeed, Alleluia !
In our tradition we refrain from saying ‘Alleluia’ during the 40 days of lent.
It’s sort of a ‘fast’ from joyous frivolity.
So, we delight in our Alleluias during this Eastertide season, through Christ’s ascension after forty days, to the fiftieth day after Christ’s death, Pentecost.
Tracking ‘seasons’ of life with Christ is a JOY.
It’s like following the farming seasons only we are ‘farming’ for more understanding of our personal relationship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ.
So, we celebrate ‘resurrected life’ after we follow our Lord to the Cross and grieve through his life and death during ‘Holy Week’.
Holy Wednesday we offer a walk through the Stations of the Cross just before a worship service with healing prayer.
Maundy Thursday we replay Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples by inviting others to a Seder.
We review the Jewish salvation history and invite Jesus along as we read through the Haggada, or story.
Afterwards we attend a worship service with washing of feet. We then strip the altar area clean of embellishments, color, bling, anything that reminds us of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Emptiness lays before us as we meditate within this barren space.
The next day we awake to Good Friday.
What’s good about the day we crucify Christ through Word of his Passion?
What’s good about crucifixion?
Absolutely nothing.
It’s the good that comes out of the death of our “sacrificial Lamb” that we celebrate.
It’s resurrection after a very hollow period of time, a time we pour out our heartache to the Lord as we grieve over Christ’s death.
At the same time we experienced vigil for our Lord, we also embraced vigil for three members of our church who were stricken with illness that led to certain death. We loved each in a different way as each is important to our community. These are not the only lives we are grieving but these three were foremost on our hearts as death was imminent.
Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
Words shouted from the rooftops on Easter as one of the three took his last breath.
The next day the second one quietly slipped into the loving arms of our Lord.
Two days later, the third experienced Resurrected Life.
Those who died are at peace but those left behind struggle with grief.
One of the three who died struggled to maintain life for several years. It’s as if she had fifteen lives.
Each time we thought it was the end, she ‘rose again.’
Her spirit was stronger than her body.
She so loved the Lord and was ‘ready’ but her heart just kept ticking through one challenge after another.
Her spouse and the rest of us almost expected her to live forever because it seemed that she had ‘resurrected’ from near-death too many time to count.
A few days before she died her husband whispered, “I’ll never be able to worship with her again.”
Sigh.
He was grieving deeply but, through his tears we could see his deep spiritual strength.
There was an endless joy floating within his deep sorrow.
Their daily bible reading, lively theological discussions, their co-ministry at church, their outreach to others will not end but is now cut in half.
He will keep moving forward, as God directs, knowing she is finally at peace. He will suffer more than she at this point but God’s people will make sure he survives well.
Another died early Easter week leaving behind a bewildered spouse. He had a chronic illness and was ministered to every step of the way.
His wife was active in a church group who surrounded her with love at every turn. Both were ministered to so lovingly that she may have thought the end would never come.
Yet, it did.
She was not prepared.
She had brushed off the inevitable for nearly a year.
She did not think her soul needed nurturing other than with girlfriends, which were abundant.
He is at peace, experiencing the beauty of resurrected life.
She remains in a quandary.
What do I do now? How do I take the next step?
She is finally reaching out to leaders who offered her assistance many times along the way.
She does not know how to move forward.
We will help any way we can but grief takes its own path.
Then there was the third surprise.
He was attending church events and very supportive of his wife’s ministry but one day he felt faint.
In the ER, they found the white count was skyrocketing.
Three weeks ago, in one instant, he was diagnosed with that which meant certain death. Yet, they ordered chemo.
He was moved to another hospital than to hospice house. Chemo was withdrawn.
Pastoral visits and phone calls never ceased.
Yet, it all happened so fast.
He felt at peace and slept into the arms of Jesus.
She kept vigil, answered too many questions, played hostess to the many visitors and remained ‘strong.’ She is trained to remain ‘in control’ no matter the situation.
She could not take a moment for herself.
He has resurrected life.
She is left behind not knowing what to feel.
Shock?
No matter how spiritually mature we are, a sudden life-change is hard to fathom. She walks in grace but each step feels empty right now.
She seeks nothing except affirmation that how she feels or does not feel, is OK.
She is numb.
She has the tools to walk through her grief but her ‘playbook’ seems foreign.
“Is this how I’m suppose to act, feel, be?” she says deep in her soul.
Grief is different for each one of us.
There is no ‘playbook’ for grief.
She is moving forward at her own pace. She will survive.
But I sigh for her.
I wonder how I would deal with an instant life-change.
All involved in these stories know and feel affirmed regarding resurrected life and know our prayers are holding each of them lovingly in God’s hands.
We celebrate the life of Christ as everlasting but we forget about our own lives.
We who have faith in Christ and believe in his resurrection from the dead are in good hands. Yet, this does not mean that we know what to do with grief, with severe life changes, with the deep ache that hangs heavy within us.
To live ‘above’ pain and beyond suffering is not real.
Trials are real.
Pain is real.
Suffering is real.
Death is real.
Sometimes we must walk through the fire of suffering because there is no way around it.
We don’t ‘catch’ fire but the experience is scary.
If we follow the One who leads us through the fire we will survive.
We not only can survive but can thrive knowing that there is a time we will suffer no more.
Resurrected life.
This is not just for Christ.
It’s there for all of us . . . if, by faith through his grace, we journey with Christ, and claim Jesus as Lord of our lives each day.
