Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

I was catching up with my old friend Mary Ellen not long ago. She’s one of those friends, you know the kind - who know you so well and who you know so well that no matter how much time passes it’s like you’re picking up right where you left off.

We have come to the Easter Dawn!

Sure, the actual dawn isn’t for another 10 or 12 hours, but that’s a technicality.

We have come to the dawn of our Savior’s resurrection.

There is nothing more important than the gift of faith that God in Christ makes possible through the cross.

The “Hosannas” of Palm/Passion Sunday, which do so quickly change to cries of “Crucify him, crucify him!” remind us of humanities basic changeability, yet they are but a backdrop to the permanence and eternal and enduring love of Christ that so patiently and persistently fulfills God’s promise of grace and mercy by climbing to the cross and going to the grave.

Tonight we begin the Triduum, or worship in three parts over three days that is Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. We have, with God’s help, moved along our Lenten journey of God bringing us home again to Christ. Here, tonight, we are gathered with Jesus’ other disciples as the Master humbles himself to wash our feet.

Palm/Passion Sunday can be jarring, jolting even as we move quickly from joining the crowds cheering Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem to joining the crowds crying “crucify him, crucify him!”

Yet perhaps the rollercoaster of Palm/Passion Sunday reflects the sometimes roller coaster of our lives? From highs to lows, good times to bad, from having every hope to being discovered by the depths of suffering.

A beautiful red cardinal landed under a nearby shrub as I was hustling the kids out the door to school one morning this winter. It only registered with me a few hours later that I‘d seen this wonderful bird, red coat stark against the white snow and brown branches, a sign of life and spring around the corner. 

That I noticed and remembered this special moment at all may be proof that God works miracles! After all, it can be so easy to go on autopilot and travel through life distracted and without noticing the blessings of the present moment.

And the present moment is full of potential gifts. 

The season of Lent marks the time in the Church year intended to help us especially focus on renewal and restoration, spiritual growth and deepening of faith. During this season we are invited to turn away from things that distance us from God, and allow God to open our eyes and hearts and lives to see God’s gracious love in Christ poured out in forgiveness - for us. Lent is a present-tense opportunity to ponder and pray on how the resurrection of our Savior Jesus gives us new life and new birth and new eyes and ears to see the world around us.

It’s time to let it all go.
It’s time to let everything go.

It’s time to let go of our worries and our fears and our guilt. It’s time to let go of selfishness and greed. It’s time to let go of anger and impatience, but it’s also time to let go of our need to be right and judging others who think differently than us. It’s time to let go of trying to get things perfect and it’s time to let go of blaming ourselves, and others, for not being perfect. It’s time to let go of our families and friends, our church community and all the communities of which we are a part.

Silence
And nothing more
Silence
And the end has come
Silence

The end of Jesus’ earthly journey has come. The time of God - walking fully human on earth - has ended.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

This magnificent story of Jesus’ resurrection, that starts with the line “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark,” (John 20:1) reminds me of one of my favorite Easter traditions from when I was growing up.