April 20, 2025 - Easter / Baptism - Remembering and Rising Through the Wounds

Creator's Easter, 2025. - Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. But what kind of rising is this? Is it clean and triumphant, or is it full of mystery, scarred hands, and unfinished grief?.

Today, we gathered not only to proclaim resurrection and witness a baptism but, as Pastor Emillie preached, to witness it through the eyes of those who first stayed, who first remembered, and who first told the story.

“Very early in the morning, the women came to the tomb”  the Gospel reads.

Why? Because that’s what they do.

The men were scattered, the women stayed. They were there at the cross, there when the stone was rolled into place, and there again at first light, bearing spices for a body they fully expected to find. Not because they expected resurrection but because they were faithful in love. They showed up in grief, in confusion, in service. That’s what they do.

It’s what so many women, and so many marginalized people, have done across history: Held vigil. Tended wounds. Remembered names. Carried stories. World and war stories like those of the Congo, Rwanda, Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Gaza today. Personal stories where recently closed churches once walked with people who have suffered loss in the past. Christianity is not about embracing naive optimism. These women weren’t there for glory. They weren't trying to change the world. They were there for love. And in that love, they were the first to witness the world’s turning.

Pastor Emillie continued to observe how she loved the Easter story because it was about remembering. At first they felt that ever-present fear when in the presence of the angels but when asked "Why do you seek the living among the dead", they remembered. They remembered that God is with us not only in our joys but in the midst of suffering. Jesus did not ask for perfect disciples but for the faith to show up and do something. And, like Jesus, to live through what wounds us and rise despite those worldly challenges.

The resurrection didn’t begin with certainty, it began with memory. Resurrection came not as something entirely new, but as something remembered. What was recollected from the words and the meals, the promises and the path. Sometimes faith is not about seeing but remembering. Sometimes hope is about gathering the broken pieces of the past and daring to believe they still fit together. 

The women didn’t argue theology. They remembered a relationship. And that memory gave them courage to speak, even though people would doubt their words and the story flew against all the beliefs of the time. This was truly an Easter, 2025 vision that addressed, not only Jesus' world then, but our current world now.

Resurrection didn’t erase the crucifixion. This rising doesn't happen without scars.

Later, when he appears to the disciples, he shows them his hands and feet which were still marked by nails. The risen Christ is not made perfect in the way we often imagine perfection. He is made whole with wounds.

This is resurrection hope for this particular Easter. A hope that doesn’t deny trauma, loss, or any injustice we are experiencing, or are about to experience, in our lives. Rather it transforms them. Sometimes these transformations are unexpected. These metamorphoses can certainly be marked with joy and commitment. For instance, today's congregational participation in the baptism of Logan Webb. His baptism became another piece of Creator's history and the promises given will live in the collective memory of our congregation.

The Easter resurrection story begins with the women who are named in Luke, as Pastor Emillie pointed out: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others. They were the first apostles. First witnesses; the first preachers of resurrection.

And today, the church is still held together by people who show up, who remember, who carry wounded stories with tenderness, who can proclaim good news when the world doesn’t believe it.

Today's service inspired many who were gathered. The music in the service was joyful and filled with rhythm. Bob, a percussionist that Matt plays with in a group, did an amazing job. Together with Matt they played music that had people dancing as they exited the sanctuary to hymns like Be Not Afraid. The energy was palatable and our collective spirit rose.

We rose in today's grief that became presence. We rose in our memory that became courage  We rose in wounds that became witness.

Christ is risen, not in spite of death, but bearing the wounds and through those wounds themselves.

We rose, not forgetting suffering, but letting that pain open us to a deeper life. A life that shows up. That remembers. That loves anyway.

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I wrote and published this yesterday. Today the world is mourning the death of Pope Francis who died of double pneumonia; the first Latin American pontiff who transformed the papacy with his humble and compassionate style. He was the first non=European pope in almost 1,300 years and the first to name a woman to lead a major Vatican department.

A Facebook post - "Pope Francis was a voice of mercy in a time of noise. He walked with humility, spoke with fire and dared to love the unloved. He reminded the world that compassion isn’t weakness, and faith doesn’t have to shout to be heard. May he rest in the eternal peace he so often preached.” – Bob Dylan, on the passing of Pope Francis

 He will be remembered.