Easter cannot be canceled
Never in my wildest nightmare could I imagine asking my
ministry colleagues to not hold in-
person Holy Week or Easter worship services.
But after much consultation, prayer, processing of data, and
seeking to comply with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and our
three state governments, I am extending my
earlier request and now asking that all our congregations
suspend in-person worship until at least May 10, in compliance with the CDC’s
eight-week ban on gatherings of 50 people or more and the closure of schools
and many public places in the Dakotas-Minnesota Area. I will of course continue
to monitor new data and directives, or relaxed restrictions, and update or
modify my request as appropriate.
Friends, we need to continue to be the first responders in
our communities and lead the efforts to curtail the spread of this pandemic to
our neighbors. This is a part of our missional
imperative to heal a broken world.
Frankly, I am an ambivalent jumble of feelings. I often find
myself joining Jeremiah’s lament:
“Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace, but find no good
for a time of healing, but there
is terror instead.” (Jeremiah 14:19 NRSV)
At the same time, my heart is filled with compassion for
those who are ill, our over-worked and under-resourced health care
professionals, those losing jobs and businesses and retirement
funds, and our most vulnerable neighbors—the homeless, the
elderly, those who cannot shelter in place.
My heart also swells with pride. I am humbled, encouraged,
inspired by the resilience, speed, adaptability, and innovative spirit of our
clergy and lay leadership. You are demonstrating time and time again that canceling mass gatherings
does not mean canceling community or ministry.
You are bearing
witness to the truth that social distancing does not have to lead to social isolation
or neglected relationships or interrupted pastoral care. You are demonstrating
time and time again that a pandemic does not kill our spirit of generosity. We
remain a people to whom much has been given through our salvation and hope in
Christ Jesus.
We are also still in the midst of Lent. The novelist Jim Crace authored
a book in 1998 titled “Quarantine.” His fictitious narrative has Jesus
quarantined in the wilderness with others forced or choosing to practice social
distancing. This interesting twist on Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness has encouraged me to use these days
of adapting my work and relational patterns as a time to listen more deeply to
the movement of God’s Spirit in my heart and mind and soul.
My Lenten journey
has become richer as I have come to embrace being “quarantined.”
And, here is the most important thing I am hearing: Regardless of what
is happening in our world on April 12, Easter cannot be canceled. We may not be
able to gather in our glorious Easter celebrations in our lily-decorated
sanctuaries, but Easter cannot be canceled. The resurrection cannot be stopped
or delayed or defeated!
As you already
know, Easter does not come on the same date every year. Therefore, especially in
a crisis, we can celebrate Easter anytime. Indeed, every Sunday is a
celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. We are called to live in the joy and
victory of Easter every day. Perhaps this is a season to practice new, creative
ways to express this resurrection joy and victory through our online worship,
our pastoral care, and outreach ministries to those in desperate need of food, mental health care, or even
toilet paper and surgical masks. Perhaps this is a season to begin planning for
an in-person Easter celebration in July or August or whenever we can gather
again.
While we and our
practice of ministry are changing, and some things will continue to change for the
unforeseeable future, we live in the confidence of the resurrection promise and
proclamation: Christ is risen! Christ
is risen, indeed!
Bishop Bruce R.
Ough
Resident Bishop,
Dakotas-Minnesota Area
The United
Methodist Church
-----------------
The Story That Holds You in There
I greet you with the mystery and promise of Easter—each of
us can have new life because Jesus has conquered death.
Years ago, I attended a clergy continuing education event in
which Dr. Peggy Way, then a professor of pastoral counseling at Vanderbilt
Seminary, challenged us to get in touch with,
own, and rehearse the stories that “hold us in there.” You
know, those stories of God’s in-breaking and in-dwelling love that “hold us in
there” when all else seems dark, or chaotic, or hopeless and it feels like God
has abandoned us.
I have several such stories in my life that I rehearse often
in my prayer journal and in my preaching. In fact, many of you have heard these
stories—stories of moving from death or despair or doubt or disillusionment to
new hope, new expectancy, new joy, new faith.
Many of you have been guided in your Lenten journey this
year by Tom Berlin’s book “Reckless Love” and the video reflections offered by
the Dakotas and Minnesota Cabinets. Rev. Berlin
reminds us that “Jesus … died on the cross to offer us new
life, no longer bound by the habits of sin or the inevitability of our physical
death. Jesus understood that without death, there can be no new life … The work of Jesus was to put sin to death, so
that we could all find life.” This is Jesus’ ultimate expression of how to
recklessly love with one’s whole heart, with one’s whole life.
You see, the resurrection story, the story of Christ’s
“reckless,” sacrificial love and victory over sin and death is the story that
holds us in there as Christians. Our power, our purpose,
enthusiasm, and joy for life; our hope in the future; our
desire to work for peace and justice; our ability to hang in there when facing
the headwinds of a troubled, chaotic, divided world and
church all spring from the mystery and promise of the
resurrection story:
• The mystery of a stone being rolled away from the tomb.
• The mystery of new life emerging from burial shrouds.
• The mystery of Jesus coming alive in the hearts of sinners
like you and me.
• The mystery of followers of Jesus sacrificing fame and
fortune so that others might have abundant life.
The resurrection
story holds us in there precisely because it touches us—it grasps us—with the raw
power of God’s mysterious, unmerited, extravagant, reckless grace. The
resurrection story holds us in there precisely because it proves God is in the
business of bringing captives home, setting prisoners free, healing people’s
wounds, wiping away tears of grief, raising the dead to new life in Christ
Jesus.
Even though the
healing may lie ahead of us, it is already a settled fact in the mind of God.
God has already decided to heal the nations, to restore peace, to comfort the
bereaved, to erase injustice, to deliver
God’s people. God yearns to unbind each of us from our grave clothes and set us
free. God yearns for each of us to sing to the Lord a new song—a song of
resurrection.
You see, the
promise of Easter is that Christ’s victory is our victory. That’s the story
that “holds us in there.” You can have a new life in Christ this very
moment—even as you are viewing or hearing this message. Christ can be born anew
in your heart, unbind you from your death, and make you a resurrection person.
That is the story—and I’m sticking with it!
May you, your
family, and your congregation have a Happy Easter. Hold fast to the story that holds
you in there. Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed!
Bishop Bruce R.
Ough
Resident Bishop,
Dakotas-Minnesota Area
The United
Methodist Church
After the service, a potluck dinner will be held in the dining room.
