Jesus is Alive and Anita is Awake!

April 12, 2009

It’s 3:25 a.m. on Easter morning and I’m wide awake. This time it wasn’t a cat strolling over my face or tapping Morse Code on my bladder that roused me from sleep but thoughts of the approaching day.

Easter morning. Church.

There’s so much to do.

I need to finish setting up the tables and putting out the refreshments for the hospitality time that follows the worship hour. I have the purple table cloths and lavender napkins but I’m wondering if I should have bought matching dessert plates too. I have so many folks bringing refreshments this morning. Will napkins be enough? A floral centerpiece would have been nice. If I leave early enough I could run by the store to pick up some fresh flowers. I need to remember to put the cut glass crystal vase in the car in the morning. Get the vase. Don’t forget.

Oh! and my white stole. The white quilted one with the hand-stitched shimmery gold thread. It’s in the garage on the folding table where I’ve been storing the supplies for the children’s Easter egg hunt. I need to remember it too. The church colors turn to white between now and Pentecost and I only have my green stole at church.

Cut glass vase. White stole with gold thread. Leave early to get flowers. And remember this Sunday of all Sundays to turn the coffee pot on early enough. The congregation is happier with their caffeine than without it. And a quart of Half & Half. Soy milk for the lactose-intolerant. Vase. Stole. Flowers. Half & Half. Soy milk. Coffee.

I’m serving at the communion table. I could barely see the words to read the Eucharistic Prayer the last time I assisted at the table. Why do I keep forgetting to take my glasses when I should be wearing them all the time anyway? Add eye glasses to the list. I think I still have a few loose breath mints and tissues in my robe pockets from last week. Better check just in case.

Children’s sermon. I took all the visuals for the story to church last night. White felt story cloth. Brown felt road. Empty tomb with stone. Wooden story figures of the angel, Jesus, Mary, and her two friends. Empty gold metallic eggs and “He is Alive!” bracelets for every child. It would be nice to get through the story this year without my voice breaking from emotion. What a refreshing change of pace to not have to explain to the children yet again that “these are happy tears.” Don’t hold your breath Anita.

I hope the weather holds long enough for the Easter egg hunt after church. I only pray for the weather once a year but for the record I never pray for parking though I don’t hesitate to give thanks when a space opens up. This is the Bay area after all. Parking is a rare commodity which makes finding an empty parking space seem a sacred moment of divine intervention. Seriously, what am I going to do if it rains? Push the congregation out of the sanctuary at the end of service and get my teen helpers to stop eating the candy long enough to spread the filled plastic eggs and chocolates out on the church floor underneath the pews? I can just hear it. “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Now go! Get out quick!” Better than having the kids slosh through the wet grass I suppose, little egg hunt vacuum cleaners that they are. I bought too many chocolate eggs. Again. I always get carried away. There’s enough chocolate to feed a small country. I’ve got to get a grip on being so excessive with the candy at Easter. Next year. Less candy. Make note.

What do I need to remember again? Vase. Eye glasses. White stole. Flowers. Half & Half. Soy milk. Turn on coffee. Check for breath mints and tissues. Don’t cry. Less candy next year. I’m going to forget in the morning. Get up and write a note. Tape it to the garage door, and as long as I’m up, blog.

That’s the busy brain that got me downstairs in my pajamas in the middle of the night before Easter Sunday. It’s now 5:00 a.m. and with 90 minutes before the alarm goes off there’s no point in going back to bed. And besides, I don’t want to. It’s Easter morning if you haven’t heard.  A time to pause and with intention remember what we can never forget. The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. Death did not hold him. The grave could not keep him. The promise of new and everlasting life for all was fulfilled in Christ. The story will never grow old or thread-bare because it’s born anew and kept vibrant and alive in the hearts of those who treasure it every time they remember it. He is risen. He is risen indeed. I can’t believe such a thing! Yes I can. I do!

Resurrection. Redemption. Salvation. Liberation. New life. Everlasting life. He is not here. He is alive. The living Christ risen in glory. The awesome wonder and beauty of Easter language. Let it’s poetry play across your lips. Breathe it in deep. Take it into your bones.

Today is what it’s all about and because of today we know that like Jesus we have been called into freedom from whatever binds us. Our sin. The sin of others toward us. Oppression. Despair. Fear. Uncertainty. Injustice. Whatever holds us, whatever binds us, whatever buries us in isolation and keeps us living as less than all that we fully are in God. Every stone will be rolled away. My stones. Your stones. We have been freed. It is done and now all that remains is for us to live into that costly freedom, entering into the new life to which we have been called. The price has been paid. The path has been paved. The victory has been won.

Easter morning. How can anyone be sleeping with such glory ahead?

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted in Devotionals