An Easter Like No Other

Today is Easter Sunday, an Easter unlike any other we have ever experienced. Like the first followers of Christ, we are scattered, anxious, uncertain, sheltering in place.  Like them, we can scarcely believe the shadows will ever be dispersed, that fear will ever be banished, that we will ever emerge from hiding.

And yet, we have heard the Risen Christ say that we are blessed, we who have not seen but still believe.  We are witnesses of his resurrection in ways different from theirs but in ways no less powerful or true.

In the tired faces of workers stocking shelves and cashiers ringing up groceries
In the gloved hands of nurses and doctors and medical personnel
In the bent backs of cleaners wielding mops against the invisible deadly foe
In the sermons and devotions and phone calls and social media outreach of loving pastors
In the simple act of love expressed just by staying home

In all of these

Christ is risen
Christ is among us
Christ is risen
The best of all is God is with us!

I am drawn to the greatest of Easter hymns this year (from our friend Charles Wesley) as I am every year, especially to words that are likely much less familiar to most of us.  These two lines are a strong, even defiant statement of fact and of hope in the very face of that which we fear most, the grave, and certainly in the face of Covid 19 --

Vain the Stone, the Watch, the Seal;
Christ hath burst the Gates of Hell!

And then later in another verse,

Thee we greet triumphant now,
Hail the Resurrection, thou!

Because

Into just such a world as ours, Jesus was born
At just such a time as this, Jesus still reigns over death and sin
For frightened sinners just like us
and for the mending of a broken creation, Christ Jesus poured out himself

And he is ours and we are his

Everlasting life is this

Alleluia
Alleluia
Alleluia!