Pastor’s Pen | April 2024

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

This is our rallying cry during the Easter season. The rallying cry of our faith.

It’s a group effort to cry these words in a world hell-bent on violence, destruction, and oppression. Even as we celebrate the mystery of the empty tomb, we live in tension with a world that is not ok. Our neighbors are lonely, one in 10 Arizonans faces food insecurity, conflict in Gaza & Israel, Ukraine, and Haiti rages, and we are managing our own illnesses, struggles, hardships, and worries. How can we proclaim: “Christ is Risen” with authentic hope and courage?

I think, in part, because we are still people of the cross. Even as we journey into the season of Easter, it’s not as if we leave the cross behind us. Our daily lives reflect the reality of traversing the space between a cross and an empty tomb. We are like Mary Magdalene as she stands at the tomb on Easter morning, vision blurred with tears, and mistakes Jesus for the gardener. Her grief and sorrow are near, and Jesus is standing right behind her, calling her name and bringing her into the reality of life beyond death. The cross and empty tomb do but stand apart from one another. They are paradoxical pairs. Even as death and suffering are an ongoing reality, new life, possibility, and goodness emerge. Jesus stands behind us, calls our name, and brings us into life beyond death.

I started this pastor’s pen casting our Easter rally cry as a “group effort.” Because it is. There are days when I’m not sure where to locate God, and then I come to our community and someone will say to me: “God is with us.” There are days when you might come to this community with your questions, frustrations, and uncertainties, and someone will say: “You’re not alone. God is with you.”

Faith in a resurrected God is a group effort. We need each other when our griefs are near and it’s hard to recognize the empty tomb in front of us as a sign of fulfilled promise. We depend upon each other to show up and raise the rallying cry of our faith. Especially, when it is hard for us to do so.

Happy Easter, beloved people of God. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

With great joy,

Pastor Beth