Pastor Amy's Thursday Thoughts

Easter is our yearly reminder that life always wins over death, hope over fear, and morning over night. As we walk through these last few days of Lent and these last few days of winter, the daffodils nod their yellow church-lady hats and we prepare to roll the stone away from death forever! In whatever dark days come your way, I pray that the sunrise promise of Easter will strengthen you.

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

Blessing for Easter Sunday

Oh God, I stretch out

my hands to you

in this early Easter darkness.

Indeed you to pull me up

and set me on my feet again,

for I am weak and tired.

God, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Spirit, have mercy.

God, on that first Easter morning

while it was still dark,

one woman went alone to the tomb

to do what could be done to honor

you,

though hope had drained away.

Two bright angels met her there,

and then –

how is it possible? –

you were there, fully alive,

beyond belief.

Blessed are we who stretch out our

hands to you

in doubt and grief,

in sickness of body and mind and

spirit,

our prayers not fully realized,

rejoicing…anyway.

For that is what makes us Easter

people:

carrying forth the realized hope

of the Resurrected one,

singing our alleluias great and

small,

while it is still dark.

Christ is risen. Christ will come

Again.

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

~ Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, “For Easter Sunday,” in The LIves we Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (New York: Convergent Books, 2023), 210.

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