Easter hope

And somehow, happy Easter! Made it again through the Triduum - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and last night's Easter Vigil - to the victory lap which is Easter Sunday. Like many Christians I used to go only to the Easter service, then became an aficionado of the more involved three, skipping the Easter service as unnecessary. Perhaps it is. But what a joy it is, on a bright spring morning surrounded by lilies and liturgical white, the church full as it never otherwise is, with faces familiar and unfamiliar, exchanging smiles of relief and complicity with the clergy and acolytes who've been through it all together. We in the choir, exhausted by too much music over too many days, are lifted up by the presence of a brass quartet. It's a party! But can there be anything more serious than Easter? Our rector quoted Jim Wallis, Hope means believing in spite of the evidence and then watching the evidence change. But this was just a detail in one of the best sermons I've ever heard, words of truth in these terrible times, and resolve. Start 19 minutes in here.