Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat arising green.
~ Now the Green Blade Rises, ELW 379
My favorite parts of Easter are:
THE HYMNS
THE JOY
THE RESPONSE boldly shouted (CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLEULIA!)
THE REMINDER
What?
You don’t know the reminder? I know you’ve heard it. You’ve heard it on many days other than Easter, but during this season we shout it and sing it and declare it all the time.
The reminder – that death does NOT get the last word. That life and love come again, always, because they are ALWAYS more powerful than loss and hatred.
The reminder – that no longer how hard and long and painful the Good Friday, Christ wins. God triumphs.
I’ve needed that reminder a lot this past year. I have needed to know that I am in the hands and heart of a living, loving, and renewing God. But I am so looking forward to our Easter season because it is the time that we most boldly shout and remember what we cling to the rest of the year.
Easter is the blaring promise of God, shouted in hymns and voices and laughter and flowers and hope: Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
We are not abandoned or alone. Death does not hold Jesus or us. Love always comes again, just like we see all around us in the spring of our yards and flowers and seeds springing forth.
Celebrate this day! Remember today through the loud shouts. Let them be the quiet whispers that get you through the days yet to come.
Life is more powerful than death. And you, beloved, are held – ALWAYS – by life.
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat arising green.
