You’re here.
You have not given up on yourself or the world or you wouldn’t be here.
Whatever got you here this morning, your presence on this Easter Sunday
is a testament to belief in yourself, in others, in this community, in life.
Thanks for being here, for this amazing day, for the gift of life.
75 years ago on Easter Sunday in a New England Universalist church,
the community gathered to celebrate that out of death comes life.
The choir processed down the center aisle,
singing a hymn called “Up from the Grave He Arose.”
There was a hot air register in the middle of the aisle
and the last soprano got her heel caught in the grating.
She just kept singing, stepped out of her shoe and walked on.
The bass following her bent down,
lifted up the shoe—and brought the whole grate with it.
Nobody missed a beat.
The man walked on with the shoe—and the grate—in his hand,
and still in tune and still in step, the bass behind him
fell into the open register and dropped out of sight.
As the choir sang the final chorus, “Alleluia, Christ Arose!”
there was a shout, “I’m coming up!”
The man rose from the crawl space,
from the netherworld of the tomb,
as the choir burst into one more “Alleluia”
and the congregation cheered.
(story told by Rev. M. Maureen Killoran in a UUA Church of the Larger Fellowship Quest publication)
Alleluia! We have risen into this new day!
Out of falling, rising.
Out of the dark night sky, the new moon.
Out of midnight, the morning dawn.
Out of winter, spring, shoots of green and a riot of blossoming color.
Out of loss, tender beginnings.
Out of despair, the first traces of hope.
This is what it means to be human, to be part of the cycle of life.
Falling and rising, falling and rising.
Our daughter Laura sent us an email.
After a time of loss, now is a time for her of new beginnings –
a new relationship, a new job, a new vision for her life.
She asks big questions.
What is God? What is the soul? What happens when you die?
What do you know for sure?
I know nothing completely for sure.
So much is beyond my understanding.
So much is full of transcending mystery and wonder.
What is God?
God is the name humans have for what is larger than ourselves,
the creative force at work in the world…in all…
the name for the greatest, enduring love we can imagine,
a loving presence we know in glimpses
and in the deepest part of ourselves.
What is the soul?
The deep essence of who we are,
the part of us that can never be destroyed,
that can be stirred to new life.
What happens when you die?
I don’t know what happens when you die.
I know that, so far, each ending I experience is also a beginning.
This is what poet T.S. Eliot means when he writes,
“What we call a beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.”
If you’re like me, you’ve had times when
it’s 3 a.m. You’re awake.
Things seem hopeless, helpless.
Despair is a deep hole.
You’ll never make it out this time.
You won’t survive this.
You toss and turn.
In the morning, you’re exhausted.
You can’t imagine how you’ll get up and get going.
You’re like a wounded warrior dragging yourself across the battlefield.
You plod along, barely surviving.
In the morning,
or maybe several mornings later,
faint light appears and grows.
Somebody is nice to you.
People stop at four-way stop signs.
You take one step and then another.
It’s not exactly “I’m coming up out of the hole. Alleluia!”
But close.
Somehow things begin to seem not as bad as you thought.
Out of the little deaths, we rise to new life.
A colleague, a minister, a mentor told a group of ministers his story.
He’d had a heart attack, heart surgery and a really slow recovery.
He didn’t recover his health and well-being. He became depressed.
One morning he looked out at the gloomy gray day and the clouds.
He began to say the e.e. cummings poem sarcastically.
“I thank you god for most this amazing day.”
He couldn’t get very far before he began to say the words sincerely.
Tears came to his eyes.
“I who have died am alive again today.”
Our daughter Laura asks about spiritual experiences.
Moments come to mind of feeling awe, of feeling outside of myself,
of feeling connected to all that is.
The night sky full of stars, holding a new born,
being present at the death of a loved one, glorious music.
Sometimes listening so openly to someone’s story, barriers between us dissolve.
Sometimes being with a group in celebration or in shared work,
we all move as one body.
If God is a word to try to express this oneness, this greater connection,
then spiritual experiences are moments of knowing God.
What happens when you die?
What happened when Jesus died?
His body was wrapped in cloth
and placed in tomb that was closed with a stone.
In the oldest telling, the story ends with the early morning,
the stone rolled away and the tomb empty.
The story ends with mystery.
How does Jesus live after death?
His followers grieved, felt they couldn’t go on without him.
They shared a meal, remembered him.
They tried to practice what he taught and live his teachings.
Jesus lives in the stories told about him and in his message continuing.
When we think of our own deaths,
we hope people will remember us with love.
And we know in time no one will be alive who remembers us.
Our Unitarian Universalist heritage teaches
that more important than the person being remembered is the message living on.
19th century Unitarian minister Theodore Parker wrote
that Jesus words and example can no more perish
than the stars be wiped out of the sky.
The truths he taught regarding the human and God;
the relation between and among human beings
and the ways we practice these relationships
are always the same and can never change till humans cease to be humans
and creation vanishes into nothing.
Theodore Parker believed that even if the stories of Jesus were all fabrication
and Jesus never lived, the message would be true and lasting.
Parker viewed Jesus as so beautiful an example of character.
And Parked believed the teachings are even more important than Jesus.
Jesus taught love one another, serve one another.
Jesus taught let go of grasping and hoarding.
Jesus taught be open, give, forgive, be like lilies of the field.
Theodore Parker says Jesus understood he was one with God
and that we are to come to the same understanding about ourselves.
When we die, maybe we become one with the awe, one with all that is.
More importantly, while we are alive,
we can help keep the message alive.
While we are alive, loving one another, serving one another,
loving creation gives us more and more moments of spiritual bliss.
Week after week, we are here encouraging one another,
serving together, singing together,
hearing beautiful music, stories and poetry,
reminding ourselves of what’s most dear.
Here is what I’m trying to say.
We can be alive and loving now,
and for all we know, this might continue always.
Come alive by practice.
See, hear, praise, give thanks,
offer a hand, kindness, love.
Enjoy the wonder of being.
Make life less about making a name for yourself
and more about making yourself loving.
May your life keep alive timeless, enduring messages of living and loving.
In Saturday’s newspaper the Mutts cartoon
reminds us of the picture bigger than our human angst.
A dog is pictured on its back.
A human rubs its belly.
The dog says that person’s day is not in vain.
So many ways to make a difference.
Such a big world. Worthy of big praise, big thanks.
With so much to love.
Beautiful day, great to be alive!
Copyright © 2013 Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway. All Rights Reserved.
