Dear Church Family and Friends,
While I understand the sentiment that Easter has been hijacked by chocolate eggs and secular bunnies, I confess that I harbor a deep nostalgia for the Easter days of my childhood. Before church, my sisters and I would hunt around the house for Easter baskets hidden in overgrown closets and—on at least one occasion—a mysterious crawlspace. After church, we would then race around the backyard in search of eggs stashed in bushes and under porches. As I look back on these happy times, I see a fitting metaphor for the divine that may in fact partially redeem Peter Rabbit.
Think of Easter as the beginning of a hunt, a hunt for signs of new life, a hunt for the blossoming of the divine in our daily lives. Some of these signs may be rather hard to find. They are in the spiritual equivalent of the crawlspace. It may take awhile to find them. You may even need to get down on your hands and knees to crawl under the porch. The reward, however, makes it all worthwhile.
This Easter season I encourage each of you to hunt for signs of new life. Occasionally, you may want to ask others for clues. I know I sometimes had to ask for hints. In this spirit, I would therefore like to provide a few clues to a sign of new life that can be found in my own household.
For Eunita, this particular sign of new life has been associated with changes in diet, changes in do’s and don’ts, and changes in clothes. For me, it has been associated with learning a whole new medical vocabulary. For both of us, it has meant plotting a room makeover that includes replacing a futon with a playpen. As a scholar of social change movements, I would say that this sign of new life amounts to a near total household revolution (in this case with lots of pastels and rabbit-like friends).
Many of you have undoubtedly seen and experienced similar signs of new life in the past. May this Easter season therefore be a time of both discovery and nostalgia. May it be a time of both springtime elation and joy-filled memories.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks
PS: This upcoming Sunday will feature reflections on signs of new life by four members: Daniel Harrigan, Kerry Lambert, Rory Martindale, and Cynthia McNally. For those of you who are still trying to interpret the clues given above, Cynthia is Eunita’s obstetrician.