Easter – Dwelling in Presence

Rev. Dr. Kate Winters

Years ago someone shared with me an Easter sermon that made a big impression on her. The preacher had been in a deep depression for months and when the day came for the trumpets to sound and joyful expressions of “Alleluia!,” all he could do was stand behind the pulpit and say “I have to be honest. I am still in the deep and dark tomb…but I know my angel is coming!” And he sat down.

This was as powerful an Easter proclamation as I have ever heard, an expression of deep faith born of having lived the resurrection story. From darkness, surely shall spring the light. But I have to admit, I was a bit relieved not to have to preach this Easter Sunday. Not because of any personal depression, but how would I offer a message of hope to a world that seems to be stuck in the dark? Would my “Alleluia! Christ is Risen!” sound authentic when we are circled by death all around?

Mass shootings have become almost a daily occurrence in schools, places of employment, houses of worship, in the city and country streets. Faces of the victims haunt me. The war in Ukraine is a slaughterhouse, as well as the deep famine threatening whole populations in Africa. The global climate crisis is showing up in real time in many ways. Just this week I was in northern Maine. I asked a shop owner about the health of the moose population. She looked grieved as she told me that it is hardly what it used to be. The warmer temperatures have caused numbers of ticks to explode. They suck the blood right out of the young calves killing them in the process. These majestic animals that gave Joel and me so much joy when we first moved here in the not so distant past are now in danger. I am sure that every region has its own canary in the coal mine. Perhaps many.

So on this Easter week, how does one proclaim with conviction that new life springs from death? That the tomb is empty? At least in a way that does not contradict one’s own experience? For me, deep theological truths are based in enfleshed experience. Yes, the daffodils are blooming, and yes the sun is warming, but how is this addressing gun proliferation, growing hatred, white supremacy, anti-semitism, heterosexism, all the isms of our time. Does Christianity and its faith experience have anything to say to our world today? Does religion writ large have any answers for us? Does it offer a path out of the darkness that we are in? Can we still say “our angel is coming?”