In her Easter sermon, Amy used images from baseball to challenge our thinking about change and the changes resurrection brings. If you haven’t yet heard or read her memorable sermon, I commend it to you.
Today I share an Easter poem by Steve Garnaas-Holmes, in which he pokes at our defenses against change. Oh, how Easter messes with our desire to control our lives!
The Trouble with Easter
When the light breaks in
at the break of dawn
things get broken.
My fear is shattered, anxiety demolished.
Death and suffering, those fine excuses,
stolen right out from under me.
A hard, crusty way of living, on the defense,
trying to stay one step ahead of loss,
all messed up now.
Into the shadows and their blind alleys
you come with your light, splitting the darkness
wide open.
You rise up out of the grave – sometimes
sneaky slowly, sometimes lurching –
and haul me out, like it or not,
robbed of old ways, that life
we have to leave behind, that safe, familiar life,
into this new, wild, free, scary one.
Easter’s promise is that even now, resurrected Jesus is hauling us out of our hard, crusty ways of living, out of safety and familiar routines into something new.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!
What line from Steve Garnaas-Holmes’ poem jumps out at you today?
-Written by Rev. Ann Palmerton
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My fear is shattered, anxiety demolished.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem. The line that jumped out at me is “…trying to stay one step ahead of loss…,”
In light of the recent death of my husband, I am trying to step inside the loss and travel with it. The pain and grief are, after all, worth the gift of his love.
I’m touched by your sharing, Judy. Sorrow is the price of love. Your insight about stepping inside the loss and traveling with it may be helpful to others. Grace and peace to you during these days…