Rector’s Reflection - April 2025

This year, as we journey toward Easter and anticipate the joy of resurrection, the arc of the universe does not seem to be bending towards justice but away from it. The powers of division and destruction are getting a lot more attention than the power of love. These last weeks of Lent offer us the opportunity to acknowledge and lament the world’s brokenness, and our own.

On Palm Sunday we will cry out with the crowds, “Hosanna”which means “save us” or “save please.” In Holy Week we will remember that following Jesus’ way of love will put us in conflict with the powers of the world. And on Easter we will celebrate that, even though the world does not seem to have changed overnight, God’s love will never stop bringing new life into the world, even in the bleakest of circumstances.

Our community and our liturgies provide a sort of container for the hard work of repentance and reconciliation. To remember the events of Holy Week is to reconnect ourselves with the story – the story of God’s love incarnate in the world in Jesus. And to reconnect is to remember that we have our own roles to play in the ongoing story of God’s love incarnate in the world. We gather and remember so that we can be sent and proclaim.

It feels as important as ever to remember that Jesus did his work of healing, empowering, and reconciling from outside the established power systems. He did not threaten them, but they felt threatened. He did not choose conflict; they did. He did not yield to their demands to stop his work, so they used force to stop him. Jesus went to the cross rather than use violence to save himself or anyone else. The powers of this world killed him, but they could not kill love. It keeps pouring into the world like a spring that never fails.

Our call is not to overthrow the powers of this world by force but to undermine them by love. We can only do that if we follow Jesus by practicing love and giving up violence and coercion. Jesus did not begin his days looking at his newsfeed to see what he needed to react to. Jesus began his days connecting to the source of love to see where he was called to act.

We typically associate spiritual disciplines, intentionally turning to God, with Lent. Maybe this year it’s time to keep that intentionality going in Easter. I’ve been wondering what would it look like to flip our time –to spend as much time with God as we currently spend with the news, and vice versa. How might we hope-scroll instead of doom-scroll? How might we focus on acting out of love instead of reacting out of fear?

I am so grateful to be on this journey with you. Let love flow.

Peace,
Pastor Kristine