Beloved Friends,
What a splendid celebration of the Resurrection this past Sunday! Thank you again and again to everyone in our exquisitely beautiful, faithful and talented community who worked so hard to offer a liturgy and experience that welcomed nearly 200 through our doors for our in-person, Trinity@316 service as well as an uplifting sacred digital experience through our on-line, Trinity@Home service.
There were many deeply moving moments for me throughout the morning including the heart-stopping and chilling experience of hearing Aaron Copeland’s, Fanfare for the Common Man as our prelude starting us off with brass, organ and percussion to get our blood flowing. Then the altar party processed into the sanctuary surrounded by a glorious gaggle of children following Jason our crucifer like the ultimate pied piper giving us a visual representation of what it means to follow the Way of Love- and that was just the first 10 minutes of the service!
I hope you have moments as well that will stay with you as we continue to journey through this season, we call Eastertide. For the next 50 days, up until the Feast of Pentecost on Sunday May 28th, we will keep this Resurrection party going. We will continue to sing and pray, and preach about God’s Revolutionary Love.
May the season of Spring happening around us outside rekindle the same for us in our hearts, planting seeds of hope and promise of new life and new possibilities. Take in this tender poem by Joyce Rupp below as both a balm and a charge- an invitation to let the passionate grace of the Risen Christ tend our souls once more bringing us out into the sun to shine and reach out to share all of who we are in the world.
May the resurrection for us be about the expectation of “a life holding the promise of an eternal return to spring”.
May you never forget that you are loved.
Lisa
Easter Metaphor (by Joyce Rupp, 2004)
Creator of springtime,
how can it be that every year
I forget the miracles visiting
the land in the form of fresh leaves, laughing flowers,
greening grass.
Winter holds a strong power over me.
I lose the memory of vibrant vigor,
the unseen energy raising
dead earthen things to awakening life.
Risen One, dwelling within me,
how can it be that I forget you,
your passionate grace tending my soul,
your constant stream of hope
rising up through the dead ground
of my brown, barrened prayer.
I turn to you in this season of spring,
bowing gratefully
to every growing plant,
every flourishing flower,
for each one sings an Easter metaphor full of memory,
proclaiming your wild embrace of my inner life,
a life holding the promise of an eternal return to spring.
Image: Mina Shariq/EyeEm/Getty Images