April 17, 2020

Well! Crazy as it sounds, I guess my computer wanted to somehow mimic Jesus the last three days. It seemed to have died on Friday afternoon just when I needed to write the first draft of the Easter sermon. So first thing Saturday morning I took it to Staples where a 17 year old named Santiago worked hard and long to resuscitate it … but then mistakenly thought it should be shut down for a safe journey home. I went home full of joy and made lunch for puppy and I and then … could not turn on the computer, sigh. So I headed back to Staples where Santiago (Saint James) gave it a quick reboot of computer CPR showing me that I needed to repeatedly push the start button … I guess like thumping the heart back into action. Meanwhile he’d convinced me earlier to get the $20 a month tech support plan – best investment I’ve made in ages! Got home and contacted tech support to see why my computer was still so sluggish. They ran various scans including a malware scan that took two hours to look through half a million files. And finally, hallelujah, the computer was fully resurrected and able to be used for sermon writing. I think I’ll start calling my computer Christa in honour of this event.

So, without much time left to write an actual sermon, lo and behold, our Guardian for the Community of Francis and Clare or CFC, Bill Tarter, sent us an Easter message last evening that was too good not to share, so here it is:

“The world we live in is complicated as bombs drop and strangers open their homes to new and unknown friends. Blinded betrayal lives alongside loyal grief found waiting at a tomb. The muddled pain of brokenness and despair gives way to the clarity of hope and healing. The shadow cast by the temporary illusion of fear is diffused by the light of the truth that always is. The lusts of what doesn't matter are surrendered to the fulfillment of what does. A simple meal among friends becomes an eternal remembrance of lives woven together in love.

Jesus, who was broken by fear, ignorance, false judgement, insecurity, and greed, reveals God's will: a loving reality of justice and peace.

The Resurrection of Love - Jesus, our brother, is the beginning of our journey. To walk with him to choose hospitality, loyalty, clarity, truth, love. We must roll back the stones that keep us strangers, set aside our petty need for power or position, cast aside our fears and insecurities. We walk as children of the light, the truth, the love.

The Resurrection of Jesus, completely and eternally proclaims to every aspect of creation, every nook and cranny, every universe and atom: Love endures all things, even death. Be at peace and have no fear ------

Alleluia, he is risen, Jesus, the Christ, is risen indeed!” (endquote)

Sharing this awesome message from Brother Bill Tarter, who’s also now a Cathedral Honorary Assistant, gives me a happy excuse to mention again that all practicing Anglicans are welcome to join our dispersed international Franciscan community – please contact me if you’d like more information or just Google Community of Francis and Clare https://cfcfranciscans.org/ . There’s a parish in Sequim in Washington State that has about 10 CFC Franciscans – perhaps we too could have a few. Among the many perks are the fact that Dawna Wall is a member, so you’d see her at various monthly meetings. And we could do so much more together. Francis is the patron saint of ecology so he’s still very relevant.

The first lines of scripture we heard proclaimed today from Isaiah were God’s message that “I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating …” I believe that the Creator is continually engaged with Creation, and the rest of this reading shows us how awesome God’s plans are for all of God’s people, including some very practical things like: “They shall build houses and inhabit them”. Sounds so ordinary until we consider that most of the younger generations in Canada cannot afford to buy even small homes that have become outrageously, criminally high in price. And my favourite line from this Isaiah reading is the last one verse 65: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox … They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.” Hopefully we are longing for such a time when violence will be no more, not even in the animal kingdom … but it’s up to us humans to take the first or ongoing steps towards such heavenly peace on earth.

And last, but not least, we heard our beloved John 20 Easter gospel. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb before dawn on that first Easter day. It’s empty so she runs back to tell Peter and the “other disciple” – understood to be ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. Interesting, eh? I thought he loved all his disciples, didn’t you? What’s different about this love, I wonder? So, the two guys run to the tomb, and seem to be competing about who got there first, who went in first, who saw the linen wrappings first, etc. – quite a contest it seems. Then the guys go home but Mary stays behind – weeping outside the tomb. Looking in again she sees two angels who ask why she is weeping. Then she turns around and there’s Jesus, although at first she assumes it’s a gardener. Clearly Jesus was in a different form as we also see from him saying “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Sounds like an embrace would have been normal between them. She opens her arms for an embrace right after what? Right after he calls her by name. There are many joyful messages that these Easter readings bring to us, especially the New Life of God-in-the-World everywhere forever -- that is brought to us by the Resurrection. But let us not overlook the beautiful fact that Jesus reveals himself to those who love him, by calling them by name. May each of us listen to hear our own names called, as we continue our beloved discipleship in the Risen Christ, Amen.