A Practice Resurrection finale for a monstrous Eastertide
Oh, friends, this has been a hard season for our family as we’ve been gathered together to walk through a severe illness with a close family member. If my understanding of the reality of resurrection was based in a one-upon-a-time kind of story that Jesus got out of death and forever left behind his humanity, I’d felt like going through with this blog series to celebrate Eastertide was a kind of hypocritical escapism. To practice resurrection is to remind ourselves daily that the same power that fluttered the dead eyelid of our friend and brother Jesus is the same power offered to us. Each day we live and move and have our being in the oxygen of resurrection power.
While our family’s been tossed about in a painful season we’re grateful for our “in person” community of family, congregation, and friends who are companioning us through the everyday tension. In the face of bullying despair, your stories and photos have added to the sum total of hope Christ offers us each day. The #practiceresurrection2019 community of guest contributors as well as those of who shared photos and captions online and added to the truth, goodness, and beauty of Wendell Berry’s poetry, have served as a descant over this season. Thank you.
It’s a delight to share this collection of stories and photos from the Eastertide season in one post. I hope you’ll take time to listen to the poem read aloud again, to read the captions and click through the links for the full posts.
As it turns out, I can’t stop referencing poets so before we enjoy the #practiceresurrection2019 finale, I’m sharing yet another gorgeous poem that came to mind while I was writing the previous paragraphs. I’m offering it as kind of call to worship as we head into the season of Ordinary Time; an invocation shaped by a defiant, “monstrous” hope that all shall, at last and forever, be well.
Thank you to each of the guests who contributed a snapshot of their daily practice of resurrection.
Micah Thompson
Hinesburg, VT
Sarah Quezada
Guatemala City & Atlanta, GA
Brendah Ndagire
Uganda
Amanda McGill
Southwest Ohio
Jennifer Willhoite
California
Suzanne Rodriguez
Rochester, NY
Jim Janknegt
Elgin, TX