The Lord is Risen!

Easter is becoming my favorite day of the year. Living up North (I grew up in Texas) has given me a new appreciation for the seasons, especially spring -- warm weather, new life. Having a toddler now has magnified my enjoyment of newfound outdoor activity.

Our sanctuary today was filled to the brim with fresh flowers and morning light; cute children and pastel costumes; brass fanfare, ringing bells, and emphatic "alleluias." My senses were charmed, but more importantly, my spirit moved.

Immanuel Presbyterian is the first church I've attended that honors liturgy much at all (I grew up in the Bible belt). I’ve come to value the church calendar and delight in traditions I scoffed at in my youth. I’m all for change and adaptation -- God is forever molding His Church to bridal perfection -- but I’m beginning to see the wisdom in time-tested phrases, songs, rituals or customs, and philosophies. God is, as He was and is to come.

It's not just Resurrection Sunday that's so great; it's all the prelude to it as well. Critics of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King say the ending was too long. I, on the other hand, actually wanted more. (It’s fair to say we’re fans of Peter Jackson’s arrangement of the Tolkien classic. It’s fairer to say that we were on the email list that notifies you when the extended editions were available for PREorder.) My point is this: The ending had to be long, because the story was a saga. That’s how I feel about Holy Week, or the entire Lenten season for that matter. It’s the annual celebration of the most important event in history but also the annual observance of what precipitated that event.

Good Friday points us to humanity’s hopelessness, to sin’s gravity, and ultimately to the sacrifice of the only good human -- His life for ours. Even though I know the end of the story, the smile of Sunday is faint as I consider loss: loss in our lives and others’ here on earth, but mostly the loss of God’s blessings when we choose the plausible, the comfortable, or the familiar way over His wild, risky ride. I can’t help but mourn in my deep moments through the weekend.

Perhaps that is precisely what makes Easter so uplifting when it finally comes. And oh, how sweet it is on that day, to clasp hands with brethren and proclaim,

He is risen! The LORD is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.