John 20: 9-18
…But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!!
As we have journeyed together through the last forty days, I hope that you have experienced moments of depth, connection, and preparation for the great joy that is the miracle of Easter. The amazement of resurrection, the unfolding of new life from brokenness and despair: these are gifts offered that are wrapped in mystery and love. On this day of great rejoicing, my hope is that you feel the sacred space in your own soul springing to new life. Easter offers each of us an opportunity to live fully and more completely into the celebration with each day and each step of our journeys. We are offered, both in liturgy and in our daily living, the opportunity to live fully into the palpable power of resurrection.
I will close our “Living into Sacred Space” series with a poem to hold close not only on this day of joyful celebration, but in the continual daily unfolding of this gift of new life into which we can step with open hearts, renewed spirits, and hand in hand as beloved community.
The Lord is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!!
Beginners
by Denise Levertov
Dedicated to the memory of Karen Silkwood and Eliot Gralla
“From too much love of living,
Hope and desire set free,
Even the weariest river
Winds somewhere to the sea–“
But we have only begun
To love the earth.
We have only begun
To imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
— so much is in bud.
How can desire fail?
— we have only begun
to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision
how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower,
not as oppressors.
Surely our river
cannot already be hastening
into the sea of nonbeing?
Surely it cannot
drag, in the silt,
all that is innocent?
Not yet, not yet–
there is too much broken
that must be mended,
too much hurt we have done to each other
that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,
so much is in bud.
— from Candles in Babylon, by Denise Levertov
Sacred Space 