Practice Resurrection - Easter, April 4, 2021

by Rev. Joan Kessler

Mark 16:1-8

What does resurrection mean to you this Easter of 2021? When you consider the year that has ben, we have done a COVID liturgical lap and are at our second Easter online and out of the building. The story of the empty tomb that we celebrate today… how does it reach you? Perhaps you readily identify with the women we heard read of in Mark’s gospel… they went to attend to Jesus body as was custom…their biggest concern at that moment was who would roll the stone away from the cave’s entrance. But they found no body that morning and a stranger sitting where they expected to find Jesus, proclaiming the news He is not here, he is risen. They are filled with awe and terror all at the same time.

We might be thinking of all the empty space moments from the past year, as we adapted to COVID and its restrictions. The places of loss and of longing for what we used to know, the people we used to see and embrace. For some of us, it has been a most anxious and fearful time. This past week, in conversations with friends and family members from other communities where COVID is rampant, I was struck by how different my experience has been and so very grateful. It gave me a renewed vigilance that the virus is still very much with us and we cannot relax our protocols just yet.

I have been reflecting this week on business of resurrection. We can contemplate that empty space where Jesus once lay and we can make up our own minds about its meaning. But this year, I am thinking of resurrection as a verb in a present tense kind of way rather than a one-time phenomenon. I found something that might help.