An Easter to Remember
Dear Easter Observers:
This was an Easter we’ll not soon forget—the year of the pandemic when we all hunkered down at home, intent on not spreading the COVID-19 virus. It will be remembered as the Easter of video worship, social media encouragement, Zoom calls and window posters. The tomb was empty, and so was the Sanctuary. It was an Easter without an uplifting choral anthem or echoing brass from the balcony. This was the Easter when Henry prepared his prelude and hymn accompaniment ten days before its presentation, uploaded to the cloud where trombonists could add a few layered tracks to the audio and create the illusion of shared time.
It will be recalled as the Easter when the pastor preached his sermon to a camera and tripod on Maundy Thursday, and the Maundy Thursday service was edited on Wednesday, and the ecumenical Good Friday service was recorded before Palm Sunday from a dozen different locations. This was the Holy Week that seemed to last 14 days, and it was hard to know what day it was without looking at your phone.
It was the Easter when bandwidth and processing space mattered in ways it never did before. When sound sync rendering required one more upload to the website because the preacher’s words and lips didn’t match, and the sermon had the feel of an old Godzilla movie.
This was an Easter without lily delivery. No rushing off to the brunch line or stopping by to pick up grandparents. No egg hunt on the church lawn or lingering conversation in the Narthex between packed services. No getting the kids up and scrubbed to put on their cute outfits; hats and ties were completely optional, pajama pants and uncombed hair unremarkable. No ushers recalling Easters past when extra chairs were in the aisles or remarking how good it is to see the Sanctuary full and wondering if the bulletin supply
would be enough.
This was the Easter when young agnostics didn’t chafe at the notion of heading to church to please Mom or Dad or Grandma. There wasn’t a there to go, so there wasn’t a who to please.
This will be the Easter we will not soon forget; it will be remembered for all the things that were so un-Easter-like, because we wanted to keep people safe. We wanted people to know we loved them by reaching out in unfamiliar ways. We wanted to connect with our loving hearts, not our sanitized hands.
This will be the Easter we will not soon forget, because this will be the Easter remembered for something greater than our gathering. This will be the Easter remembered for how hard we worked to turn the shadow of death into the dawning of life.
This will be the Easter when the echo of the empty tomb resonated with the undeniable shared message of hope; and the words of the resurrected Christ strike us in a whole new way, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
Wishing you an unforgettable Easter, I remain,
With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor