Time for Renewal
FROM THE RECTOR
Every year at this time, I write to encourage you to take part in the Paschal Triduum—the three holy days that stretch from the Maundy Thursday liturgy through evening prayers on Easter Day. Following the example of my colleague and friend Scott Gunn, I promise you that those who take part in the entire spiritual journey will experience the life-changing power of God. We cannot offer ourselves to this holy mystery without being transformed. This year, as we approach Holy Week, I want to invite you to think of this as an opportunity for your own renewal and for you to be a part of the shared renewal that we will experience together.
The world needs renewal. Environmental degradation continues unabated. War rages in Ukraine with no end in sight. Entire communities have been destroyed in earthquakes and tornadoes. Children and teachers have been murdered at another school. People we love have received devastating news about their health. We have lost family members and friends. I am under no illusion that all of the problems of the world will disappear as this year’s Holy Week gives way to another Easter season, yet I see within this Paschal journey the proof that our God has renewed, is renewing, and will renew our lives, the world, and the entire universe.
The beauty of our annual pilgrimage through Holy Week is that each of us is invited to bring along the deepest needs of our hearts and the most desperate needs of the whole world and see again how nothing has the power to defeat God’s love. Jesus washes our feet and teaches us to do the same, modeling for us that serving others is how we serve God. He shows us how, in the ordinary sharing of bread and wine, we can be one with God and with each other. He accepts arrest, torture, and death for our sakes, revealing the magnitude of God’s love for us. He lies lifeless in the tomb and hallows death itself, giving new meaning to the deaths we have experienced among those we love. He is raised to new life and defeats the power of death once and for all. He walks beside faithful disciples and reveals himself to them through the opening of scripture and the breaking of bread.
In the centuries since Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christians have wrestled with the fact that his journey from the cross to the empty tomb did not immediately put an end to all that is wrong in this world. Why does God’s victory over the forces of evil, sin, and death—if truly and finally won in the Paschal mystery—remain seemingly incomplete? During the first few decades after Jesus’ earthly life, the apostles and their successors explored that reality, using different images and exhortations to encourage other followers of Jesus to hold onto their faith despite unrelenting challenges. Their insights help us faithfully endure suffering in our own day.
Some of the images that I have found most comforting in recent months come from the Book of Revelation, in which the visionary author describes Jesus’ Easter victory as a fatal blow to our ultimate enemy. According to this metaphor, although mortally wounded, the great opponent of God and God’s will in the world—usually identified as Satan or the Devil—is now thrashing about, doing its worst to inflict damage on God’s people. I find that the passages of scripture that convey that approach do so with a pastoral creativity that gives me hope—hope that, despite all the contemporary evidence to the contrary, the certainty of what the first disciples witnessed at Easter is as impactful now as it was two thousand years ago.
Journeying back to Holy Week allows us to recognize again that Jesus’ defeat of evil is sure and certain even though we must wait for it to become fully manifest at that time when God’s renewal of the world is made complete. Lately, as bad news mounts up with no end in sight, I feel a profound need to renew my faith in the only one who has the power to reverse that flawed trajectory. Walking together through the Paschal Triduum allows us to bring our own longings back into those moments of Jesus’ life and enables us to cast forward what we have witnessed into the years ahead of us. We make this pilgrimage not only as a memorial but as an act of faithfulness that inspires faithfulness. This is how we come to believe that God’s promises are sure and certain and how we renew our hope in them.
Yours Faithfully,
Evan D. Garner