Resurrection Sunday: Our Hope Has Come
Happy Resurrection Day, friends! May you know new life, peace, and hope today, tomorrow, and forever. Easter Sunday kicks off a week in the liturgical calendar known as the Easter Octave and a seven-week festival called Eastertide or The Great Fifty Days.
Cherry Blossoms
"Now I walk through the valley of the shadow,
And I have been tested like silver and gold.
Lord your faith has taught me to cherish.
That this light affliction is not my home.
In winter, I believe you.
In springtime, I see you.
It's so good to be with you,
My hope has come!
Lord You make all things new!
Your love is my breakthrough.
Now I sing hallelujah!
My hope has come."
- Andy Squyres
The spring sun coaxed me outdoors for a long walk on March 9, my 49th birthday. We were a couple of days away from understanding the gravity of the pandemic seeping through every crack and crevice of our county, my grandmother was nearing death, and we were starting to worry about needing to postpone our daughter's April 25th wedding date. But the sun was shining and I was taking a feast day in the middle of the Lenten fast.
A few steps out my door, this song from Andy Squyres shuffled into my earbuds and completely captured my attention. I played it on repeat for the entire two-mile walk. It's the soundtrack carrying me from that day into the Feast of Resurrection that begins today.
Cherry Blossoms, chronicles Squyres' journey through pain and loss after his friend was murdered by a home intruder. Track after track of honest wrestling with pain, disillusionment, and grief build and subside with this closing song which Victoria Emily Jones describes: "[Squyres] has cycled through a season of life with God and has landed at a gracious new beginning. “Orientation-disorientation-reorientation” is how Walter Brueggemann schematizes this constant flow along which God’s children are always in transit."
Wherever you find yourself in your journey, may you allow the liturgical season of Eastertide offer you reorientation from a long Lent. The truest truth wins.
Christ is risen, friends! He is risen indeed!
Tamara
p.s. In the video above, Sqyres is singing the song with his daughter Savannah McAffrey.
Watch: Cherry Blossoms, Andy Squyres
Read: Jeremiah 31:1-6; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Acts 10:34-43 John 20:1-18
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for Easter Sunday
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Listen: A new Spotify playlist - Resurrection 2020. Add it to your account by clicking ‘Save to My Library.’
Do: I'm working on a new resource that better fits the shelter-in-place lifestyle we're all living. For now, this should get you started!
In previous years, we've celebrated the Great 50 Days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday (aka, Eastertide) with a series I've dubbed Practice Resurrection (after the Wendell Berry poem). It's one of my favorite series all year, and I'm excited to start again.
I need your photos and captions to make it work. To help prime the pump, I thought you might enjoy the list of ideas I brainstormed for simple ways to practice resurrection.
Choose 1 idea or 50, but whatever you do, do it with gusto!
Here's how you can share your photo stories with me for the blog:
1. Add something to your day that helps you practice resurrection (one day or fifty days -doesn't matter).
2. Take a picture and write a description in 1-50 words.
3. Share it with me via email, share on my Facebook page, or tag me on Instagram (you can tag me with @a_sacramental_life or use the #PracticeResurrection2019 hashtag.)
I look forward to hearing from you!
Tamara
p.s. You can read here for a brief description of the liturgical season of Eastertide, and see previous Eastertide posts here.