Easter

Today is Easter Sunday, the highest festival in the church calendar.  This year, in Manitoba, it coincides with beginning to dare to believe that winter might not really last forever.  The snow is (mostly) off the roads and you can see part of our front walk. The waist-high drifts on our yard are slowly shrinking.  Winter will lose... eventually.   I have noticed in myself a leaning towards spring, a wish for things to start growing and coming out of hiding, a desire to go for a walk in full stride instead of having to mince over ice, to wear runners rather than Sorels.  But not yet - it's still waiting time.

These longings for change and renewal and for things to be the way they're supposed to be, already! are so similar to my feelings about the invisible world- the Kingdom of God, or call it the Kingdom of Heaven.  Ramsy is already where things are restored, but here there is still breaking and rending and twisting.  Sometimes it's hard to be here.  Easter reminds me that someday, suddenly, like spring arriving, history will be over and the Kingdom will be fully realized.  But not yet - it's still waiting time.  We celebrate what Jesus already accomplished and the evidence we see of his Kingdom, and we lean towards the hope of what is to come.

This morning my girls and I get to sing about this in our church.  This song is by The City Harmonic, and it references the Book of Revelation (chapter 21).  It sums up all of history and the future, and it reminds us that Death has already lost.  Christ is risen indeed; we'll be risen indeed.

Alleluia.


Holy (Wedding Day)

This is the story of the Son of God
     hanging on a cross for me - 
But it ends with a bride and groom and a wedding by a glassy sea.

O Death, where is your sting?
     'Cause I'll be there singing
               Holy
                   Holy
                       Holy is the Lord.

This is a story of a bride in white
     waiting on her wedding day,
Anticipation welling up inside 
     as her groom is crowned a king.

O Death, where is your sting?
     'Cause we'll all be singing
               Holy
                   Holy
                        Holy is the Lord.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty,
     who was and is and is to come.

This is the story of the Son of God 
     hanging on a cross for me
And it ends with a bride and groom and a wedding by a glassy sea.

This is the story of a bride in white
     singing on her wedding day - 
All together, all that was and is will stand before her God and say:

               Holy, holy,
                    Holy, holy,
                         Holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.