Sunday, April 24, 2011

Every Morning is Easter Morning!

I don’t remember her name, but I do remember her testimony.  She was an elderly member of our church when I was a young teenager.  She had been diagnosed with cancer and told she had very little time to live.  That had been years before.  She had outlived every doctor’s prognosis.  In a day when cancer might have been referred to in quiet whispers and somehow associated with shame and embarrassment, she found the grace and courage to openly share her story.   When people went to call on her because she was homebound and ill, the caller always came away with their faith renewed.  They went to make her feel better.  They came away ministered to and feeling better themselves.
One year late in Lent this woman recorded a message to be shared at our church’s United Methodist Women’s monthly meeting. It so happened that my mom had the tape at home. She was listening to it in her bedroom one day, and that was how I came to hear the woman share her testimony in her own words. 
“It will soon be Easter,” she said.  “But for me, every morning is Easter morning.  Every day is a reminder of God’s grace and love.  Every day is a resurrection day, a new day of life and an opportunity to serve Him.” 
It seemed only fitting that a few days later, early on Easter Sunday morning, this remarkable saint left this life and went home to be with her Lord. 
Honestly, I suppose I might not have remembered her testimony so clearly if it were not for a song I learned several years later that called her to mind.  The lyrics are as follows:

Ev'ry morning is Easter morning from now on! 
Ev'ry day's resurrection day, the past is over and gone! 

Good-bye guilt, good-bye fear, good riddance! Hello, Lord, Hello, sun! 
I am one of the Easter People! My new life has begun! 

Ev'ry morning is Easter morning from now on! 
Ev'ry day's resurrection day, the past is over and gone! 

Daily news is so bad it seems the Good News seldom gets heard. 
Get it straight from the Easter People! God's in charge spread the word! 

Ev'ry morning is Easter morning from now on! 
Ev'ry day's resurrection day, the past is over and gone! 

Yesterday I was bored and lonely; But today look and see! 
I belong to the Easter People! Life's exciting to me! 
Ev'ry morning is Easter morning from now on! 
Ev'ry day's resurrection day, the past is over and gone! 
Ev'ry morning is Easter morning, 
Ev'ry morning is Easter morning, 
Ev'ry morning is Easter morning, 
From now on! 
 

Pain, despair and injustice are all around us.  This cannot be denied.  Yet as Christians we know that the greatest injustice ever done was the murder of God’s son on a cross at Calvary.  Whatever atonement theory one may embrace, it seems quite clear that it was never God’s intention to allow sin, darkness and injustice to have the final word.  Even when humanity did its utmost worst, God did His utmost best.  When humanity’s sin sent Christ to the cross, God’s grace overcame the power of death.  Christ rose from the tomb three days after his physical death. He walked, talked, prayed and broke bread with those he had known as his friends.  For those who place their trust in Him this makes all the difference.
The things that hold us in bondage – things like lack of forgiveness, abuse, addiction, disease and disability, fear and anxiety, grief and mourning – may be a very real burden to us.  But we are not without hope.  Christ is our joy.  The empty tomb is our hope.  An instrument of cruelty and execution (the cross) has become our victory sign.  Christ is risen!  Alleluia!  Light has conquered the darkness!  Love is stronger than hate!  Death is vanquished.  Joy in this life and eternity with God are our destiny. 
May you have a blessed Easter Season!

Robyn
 





Friday, April 22, 2011

Good Friday Reflections on Injustice

Good Friday, 2011
Someone once told me that I have never “accepted” the basic injustice of life.  That statement made me very upset and even angry.  Through personal experience or by companioning others on their grief journeys I have known a great deal of the injustice that seems to be inherent in life this side of eternity.
I have known, at a very young age, the injustice of war that leaves innocent children hungry, homeless and orphaned.  (I have three siblings adopted from Korea,  and my mother travelled to Korea and Vietnam several times during my childhood working to bring aid and assistance to the orphans in those war torn countries.)
I know the injustice of old age and illness – cancer and COPD, for example, that leaves good Christian men and women lying in their beds fighting with everyone ounce of strength in their bodies for just one more breath.
I know the injustice of pain heaped upon an already broken heart when a mother learns her children are disabled or have serious medical problems.
I know the  injustice of mental illness that strips away not only joy and peace, but at its worst strips away even anger and grief - not just feeling bad or sad -  but feeling nothing, a terrible, awful aloneness in the deepest, darkest of pits.
I know injustice and I know it rather well.  It angers me!