Life in Christ

You will catch a glimpse of it if you examine a dragonfly nymph – able to live under water for years until one day – when the weather is just right – it will crawl out of the water and up the stem of a plant  - completing its long awaited dragon fly metamorphosis. 

You will see it when the caterpillar finds its way out of the cocoon fully winged and ready to fly.  It’s so clear in the answered prayer.

Look closely and you will see it in the buds that are on the branches of the trees right now. Especially after this winter –  It’s all unfolding right before your very eyes… the early spring flowers are making their grand re-entrance through the soil – the crocus’ the lilacs with their fragrant smell are just starting to peek back into action!

In fact, just check out the ground and examine your feet resting on the earth the next time you go outside...  they will be standing on ground that is free from the snow you perhaps at one time thought would never melt!

It smells like coffee beans brewing or fresh bread baking and it feels like the first time you can roll the windows down in the car in the spring so you can blow the stink out.  It’s the feeling you have after the first time you discover you don’t need a jacket or when you can run to the store in sandals instead of shoes. 

You can really see what it looks like if you watch a person that you love graduate from high school and go off to the next new chapter of their lives only to fail but also to thrive and then you watch yourself do the same.

It’s a family that’s broken to bits that can still come together for things like choir concerts and baseball games, for Easter morning sunrise services and life’s important moments. 

It’s the lump on your chest that reminds a person they are still alive even though they may be mourning and who do not experience everything as well or good.

It’s there at retirement parties, when news about chronic illness is received, it’s there when the call comes.  You will see it in the soldier that resumes civilian life.  It’s really present in the hospice where you will hear it from the voices of nurses.  But then again you can also find it in the parking lot of Walmart or from waiters and cashiers.  Sometimes I think it’s most present in the person who was able to get out of bed again today - despite how difficult it is to get out of bed every day.

It’s in the face of the child who bravely tells their parents with all of the courage they can muster how they see themselves.  You get it when you have a chance to examine the baby eating slowly that had power to wake you from sleep.  What hope you can see when you look at the potential behind their eyes and in their voice you pray that they one day will use for good and not for evil.   

It’s there in the forest and in the sunrise; in the hands worn by work that are connected to the heart that just wants to provide a roof over heads and a meal on the table.  You’ll find it in solitude, in the suburbs and at the heart of the inner city.  Look at the face of a strong woman or a man that’s let go of some toxicity in his life – even if just for an hour.  It’s there in the prisons and in government, in the science lab, and in commerce.  It shows up on the dinner table and fills our bodies up.  It’s with the person who can’t let go and with the person who knows they have to. 

A first kiss or the potential for new love will certainly make it burst forth and the healing of old wounds has the ability to do it, too.  It’s laughter that comes to the one who has been overwhelmed by grief and the ability to relax when the world has put all kinds of pressure on your shoulder. 

It’s dancing your heart out when given the chance and watching a child learn how to walk.  

You’ll get it in the mosque, in the synagogue on the yoga floor, and even sometimes…  through a pastor or a church.  Sometimes it will come to you when you’re driving and have a moment to catch your breath.  Or just before you fall asleep or wake up. 

You can read it in a text that comes at just the right time to cheer you on! It’s in the air we breathe, the newspaper we read.  It’s experienced in sexuality, in health care, in conversations where we disagree or reconcile, in developing countries and grand cathedrals.  It’s in the burned down and the burnt out souls, it’s in the rain and sunshine, and even in outer space!!!

Jesus invited us to feel it in the water that would flow over our heads accompanied by God’s great YES!  He wanted to make sure we would taste it and see it and so he left it for us in a meal.   

He said we would see it probably the most clearly in the cry of the poor and in the care for the stranger, which is the bible’s word for immigrant.  He encouraged us to look for it in the face of our enemies – who he commanded us to love the same way we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  He pointed out that even the people who thought they had it all together did not need to try so hard to achieve what it was that it would ultimately bring. 

Even now, in this very moment, it’s in your own heart.

What I’m talking about is life!! It’s hope in the midst of life!! It’s the life we have in Christ because Christ is Risen… and because guess what? You are risen, too.   

This is the power of the resurrection.  Feel it just for a moment… your own resurrection.  This is the message of Good Friday. This is the message of Easter.  That even where we might least expect it, new life is possible.  I know this because, I have seen it in my life and in the lives of so many of you. 

We look for the living among the dead, because from the tomb onward, the dead is exactly where life is at work through us, because even as we remember the story, we also remember, Christ is risen. 

We look for the living among the dead because those women did not stay locked up inside of their own uncertainty –

The words of the angels that first Easter morning  turned some serious sorrow into profound hope that when all was thought to be said and done – someone saw hope – and shared that hope with others.

When it seems like there is so much despair around us – or like the whole world might fall apart – look for life – even among the dead – call it out – look for the resurrection.  Over brunch, or on your afternoon walk or when your head hits the pillow tonight – look for the Lord. 

And with Mary Magdalene, Susana, Mary, Peter and all of the witnesses of the resurrection - may you also be renewed and restored by encountering the living God, Jesus Christ our Lord – crucified and risen.  May Christ’s resurrection be for you breath in your lungs, peace in your heart – and testimony to share with a world that longs for good, news. 

Jenn Pockat
Associate to the Bishop
Director for Communication and Community

Flower growing out of a rock