A Letter from Lindy for Easter Sunday

Good Friday Pilgrims,
This day feels ever so meaningful this year as the pandemic distorts any sense of normalcy this Holy Week. But when you think about it, how could that fateful week have been "normal" for the disciples and/or for Jesus? The flurry of events unfolding between his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the poignancy of their last supper, to betrayal, denial, and fleeing, leaving Jesus alone to face the powers and principalities that wanted his voice and witness extinguished completely. AND THEY THOUGHT THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT. With crowd and community approval and support. No wonder they could wash their hands of it and be done. The heaviness of the week's painful events never ceases to hurt my heart-- just as the events of today do in the here and now.
 
I don't think I have watched the evening news as much as I have this past month. Nor have such  tears flowed with every staggering statistic and image, from New York to Louisiana to Florida, and ever place in-between, as the virus makes its way from urban to rural settings. I have people, family, as do you, in every location. And we worry for their health and safety and economic security, don't we? We worry and we grieve, not unlike the women disciples, who rarely get named as followers, but were always there. With Jesus. Bearing witness.
 
And so too are we, Pilgrim. I pray each of you has had the opportunity to read and reflect and, in time, respond to our Moderator's Maundy Thursday letter about the state of Pilgrim and our hope for the way forward. Our desire to do all we can is reflective of the beloved community I know us to be, and my prayer is that our response will be purposeful and responsive to the needs presented. I hope we have met this mark--within our church community, on our campus and to our broader community. Like the first resurrection, we may not know. We will feel confused and it may be messy. We will have concerns, doubts-- second guess our decisions, perhaps. But as we live this resurrection story, again and again, we can rest assure that God is in it. God is in us. Breathing new life and love into and through all we do. That is the power of Easter. Reminding us again and again that nothing. nothing. ever stops God from bringing holy hope and healing into our midst. 
 
Let us open ourselves to resurrection's presence.
Pastor Lindy