Mark 16:8
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
This
This is the account
that speaks most piercingly today
Not the tender moment in the garden
Or the women’s “idle tales”
But the flight
and the silence
Our usual
“The Lord is Risen
He is Risen indeed
Alleluia!”
Still rings true
Of course it does
But the terror
and amazement
are the emotions that linger
in this year of pandemic
when, it seems, for us
there may be a kind of emerging
into a changed future
For who are we -
the ones called
to witness and proclaim
resurrection today?
When so much has been lost
and lives have been forever changed?
When it seems insensitive
to speak of new discoveries
of joy in things found
in our forced isolation
Who are we called to be?
As we face the uncertainty
of life beyond pandemic?
In the midst
of grief and trauma
of austerity and oppression
of loneliness
or lingering illness
of growing awareness
of systemic global injustice
to which we have contributed
How are we being called
to bring resurrection light?
With trumpet fanfares
or subdued whispers
of love in action?
I believe
that living in Resurrection today
demands more of us
than ever before
It’s easier to loudly proclaim our faith
than it is to quietly live
with the anxiety
and the uncertainty
of emergence
to which we are called today
When we can no longer rely
on all that we’ve known
when there’s no going back
to the tried and tested
but are called
to follow the Risen Christ
into a new dawn
of dismantling empires
and institutions
designed to control and oppress
and into a new era
of release for the captives
freedom for the oppressed
healing and wholeness
for all of creation
Emerging with the risen Christ
with wounds still fresh
to transform the world in love
.witnesses to resurrection
for these days.
