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moral theologian asked his class, "Is God a monster or a marshmallow?" I challenge the reader this Easter to see if we can finally get it right.
Thomas Merton said, "Lent is not just a time for squaring conscious accounts, but for realizing what we had perhaps not seen before." Of Ash Wednesday Merton says, the focus is not on our sinfulness but on the mercy of God.
Our experience of falling in love as humans helps us realize the hunger of the Psalmist for God's love: "Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks; your presence, O Lord, I seek" (Psalm 27:8).
Maybe we need to be in the darkness of despair to really appreciate the Love that saves us. In the "God is dead" world, in the dark confusion of the Christless world, Easter dawns still. Buds sprout from bare branches. Spring brings new life and Easter joy!
A true Easter story that still chokes me up is told by Ida Kempel: Jeremy was in the second grade, seemingly unable to learn. His body was twisted, his mind was challenged, and his teacher, Doris, often became exasperated with his squirming and his grunting noises.
Doris told her students the story of Jesus, and she emphasized the idea of Resurrection.
She gave each child a large plastic egg, saying, "Bring it back with something inside that shows new life."
Next morning, 19 excited children opened their eggs. One had a flower in her egg, another a plastic butterfly, still another had a rock with moss on it - all symbols of new life. When Doris opened the fourth egg, she just kind of gasped. The egg was empty! Yes, it was Jeremy's.
She was going to quickly set it aside, but Jeremy interjected, "Miss Miller, aren't you going to talk about my egg?" Doris said, "But your egg is empty, Jeremy!" He looked into her eyes and said softly, "Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty, too! Jesus was killed, but His Father raised Him up!" The recess bell rang and the children ran out to play. And the teacher cried.
Three months later, Jeremy died. On top of Jeremy's casket, there were 19 eggs - all of them empty.
"Jesus was killed, but His Father raised Him up". The power of His love defeats sin and evil! We need to live our daily lives in God's love. There was a sign in Carl Jung's house that said: Invited or not, God is present.
Writer Adele Konyndyk says, Lenten worship calls us to carry, ponder and release heavy emotions. We sing sombre hymns of ashes, thorns, tears and blood. We wave palm branches in triumphant welcome.
But soon after our hosannas comes the heaviest day of all - that Friday when we dwell on Christ's pain and what it purchased when we tremble, tremble, tremble.
Finally, though, finally that glorious lift of a Sabbath arrives, and we can celebrate a living Saviour. "Christ is risen!" we exclaim, and enter into Easter week with glowing hearts.
This Easter, Lord, let us not be dry wood but living branches in you, the true vine (John 15), bearing fruit for eternal life. (from Way of the Cross, Columbia, March 2013).
