Sundays at Harvard-Epworth

 Communion Service at 9:00 AM In-Person &
Worship AT 11:00 AM IN-PERSON AND on Youtube  

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A Message from Rev. Barbara Lemmel

Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!

Yes, this is the greeting of Easter morning — and it continues to be our greeting, for the full seven weeks of Easter (Pentecost will be on May 19).  We continue to read stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances to different groups of his disciples: the women at the tomb, the disciples in the upper room (without and with Thomas), breakfast on the beach.  This Sunday we’ll explore the story of Jesus’ journey with and revelation to two of his followers on their way to Emmaus.
 
The glory of Easter morning is spectacular.  Especially when there’s a lovely (if chilly) sunrise, and a tasty Easter breakfast, an egg hunt with many excited children, and worship services full of trumpet and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”!  To be able to witness to Resurrection in a world of war and poverty and oppression and disease, though, we need more than one day.  We need to remind ourselves for several Sundays that Jesus is alive, really alive again!  God’s love is stronger even than death!
 
We shared Mary Oliver’s poetry during Lent.  This week I am sharing this poem from Denise Levertov, “On Belief in the Physical Resurrection of Jesus” because I love the realness of how she approaches both life and the good news of Easter.
 

It is for all
‘literalists of the imagination,’
poets or not,
that miracle
is possible,
possible and essential.
Are some intricate minds
nourished
on concept,
as epiphytes flourish
high in the canopy?
Can they
subsist on the light,
on the half
of metaphor that’s not
grounded in dust, grit,
heavy
carnal clay?
Do signs contain and utter,
for them
all the reality
that they need? Resurrection, for them,
an internal power, but not
a matter of flesh?
For the others,
of whom I am one,
miracles (ultimate need, bread
of life) are miracles just because
people so tuned
to the humdrum laws:
gravity, mortality —
can’t open
to symbol’s power
unless convinced of its ground,
its roots
in bone and blood.
We must feel
the pulse in the wound
to believe
that ‘with God
all things
are possible,’
taste
bread at Emmaus
that warm hands
broke and blessed.

May Easter’s joy dawn anew in your heart, each day, in such a real explosion of hope that you too believe that “with God all things are possible.”  May you recognize, in whatever bread or meal you share, the warm blessing of Christ’s love for you and for the world.  May the Spirit quicken the pulse of the life-blood in your own heart as you reach out in love to all the world.

Christ is risen!  Christ is risen indeed!