The Lord is Risen Indeed
Dear Friends in Christ,
Yesterday I attended the final Eucharist at Holy Innocent’s Episcopal Church in Corte Madera. The congregation has dwindled to an unsustainable size. They had not been able to afford a priest for some time. They were unable to achieve any of the possibilities open to them. And so, the difficult and painful decision was made to close.
I went because as a member of Standing Committee I feel it is important to provide support and presence across the diocese. I went because I know what it feels like to have a church I considered my spiritual home closed down. I went because I know how painful and sad it is when this happens and I wanted to offer my support and hold space for those feelings. And I went, because as the vicar of Saint Anna’s, I know that there is resurrection after what is effectively death.
Saint Anna’s is all too familiar with the feelings an experience like this provokes – grief, anger, fear, confusion, uncertainty, frustration, anxiety, and I believe it is important to witness to such feelings, to hold space for them. And it is also important to offer a ray of hope, a possibility of there being something else waiting on the other side, a light at the end of the tunnel, when those affected are ready to walk toward it.
That is, after all, the premise of the faith we follow. Death is not the end but an opportunity to transition to something different. Something better and more promising. Something that will being us closer to God, even while the thing that necessitates the transition threatens to drive us further away from God. What we do with it is our choice.
The Gospel chosen for this Eucharist was the account of the resurrection form Matthew, which we heard in church on Easter Sunday. In Matthew’s account of the women discovering the empty tomb, Jesus tells them not to stay there, full of fear and joy, holding his feet and worshipping him, but to tell the rest of his disciples to go to Galilee to where they would find him. Cn. Debbie Low Skinner preached that Jesus is not confined to one place or one time but is everywhere. And we are not meant to stay in one place once we have found him, but to go into the world and take him with us.
The Rev. Lynne Oldham Robinett, a previous vicar of Holy Innocents’, reminded those gathered that the church was more than a building, it was all of us, gathered together proclaiming the resurrection.
You all know a little about community. It is the main reason people offer for what they love about Saint Anna’s and why they stay. I know there is similar pain and loss, hurts and injuries, in our past, but it is your love for and commitment to each other that has helped the church in far East Contra Costa County weather many such storms. Despite the sadness and solemnity of the day, I found myself full of love and gratitude for this congregation and so glad I am your vicar.
Yesterday’s Gospel reading included the ending of the Gospel of Matthew, what we know as the commissioning, which we don’t read at Easter:
“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them
to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16-20
There is still much work to do, but I look forward to doing it with you all, and continuing to follow where Christ leads and witness to the resurrection.
The Lord is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Rev. Jane+