Easter 4.17.22

Here on the Isle of Glass, we honor many spiritual traditions. In my work as a Spiritualist minister, I serve my church, the United Spiritualists of the Christ Light, and I am honored on this Easter morning to lead our service, to deliver today's sermon, and to share messages from Spirit with those gathered. I also share my words here so that others may celebrate with me if they so choose.

In this age of social media, like many of you, I read a lot of stuff on the internet. One person I’ve found that I love to read is John Pavlovitz, a writer, minister, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. I find his writings and his insights so helpful and so inspiring. I wanted to share something with you that he posted on his blog in March. You can read John's post here.

And now, here we are on Easter morning. And in spite of the weariness I’ve felt that John so eloquently describes, I feel hopeful. Easter always brings a sense of hope to me, to many of us. We celebrate the day that the Ascended Master Jesus the Christ rose from the dead, the day that he proved to us all that life continues on and that death itself is just one more doorway for us to pass through in our ongoing spiritual journey. Can you imagine how distraught his disciples must have felt after Jesus was arrested, tried, and put to death? Can you imagine how terrified they must have been, and how weary the sadness and fear must have made them? It can’t have been much different from the way many of us have felt while living in our recent world. But then, as Luke describes in his gospel, chapter 24, verse 36:

“While they stood talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”

In that moment, Jesus showed his disciples, and he showed us all, what is possible. He showed us what we all can achieve: triumph over the death of the physical body and the continuance of our soul as an energetic entity. And in showing us this, in proving this to us, he continued teaching us as he always had. He showed us that anything is possible, even those things that seem completely unattainable. This is why Easter is a time of hope. As Emily Dickinson writes:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all –

-Emily Dickinson

Our souls know the truth. Our souls know that we continue on, as impossible as this may seem. And our souls know that if resurrection is possible after death, then anything is within the realm of possibility. And we know that this is what Spirit is, because it is what Jesus promised us when he spoke of it in John 14, verses 16-17:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

We know this Presence as the Holy Spirit, the Voice of truth that our soul speaks to us. It is the Source of our hopefulness, and It reminds us that now, Easter, is a time of renewal, a time of infinite possibilities. It is the Holy Spirit that calls us to rejoice in what we know, to celebrate the immeasurable power that our love and faith can calibrate in our world. We look at our symbols of Easter: eggs, that represent new life; bunnies, that represent fertility and growth; lilies, that represent rebirth. What is it in our individual lives that is new? What needs nurturing, like a spring flower that blossoms? Where do we need to grow? What do want in our lives, and how can we cultivate our dreams to become realities? These questions are ones we can meditate upon at Easter, and we can be sure that the Holy Spirit will bring us insights and guidance so that we can understand our best way forward.

Let us be grateful today for our Elder Brother and Master Jesus, who demonstrated for us the miracle of life after life, and for giving us the Holy Spirit, who continues to work with us to create a beautiful, loving world where we all can thrive.

May your Easter be blessed and bright.