Dear friends,
Hope is alive! With trumpet and tuba, flowers and blessing eggs, we boldly proclaimed our Easter faith.
Christ has risen. Love is more powerful than hatred, fear and even death. In a time when it is easy to feel overwhelmed by hopelessness, we celebrate that hope is a gift from God.
For me, that is a relief: we don’t have to create hope out of nothing by our own effort. Instead, we are free –and inspired – to respond to the gift of hope by caring for it. Hope is like a tiny spring plant that has just burst forth from the ground. It needs nurture – watering, weeding, compost, maybe protection from heavy winds or mid-summer direct sunlight.
Our theme for the Easter season is “Nurturing Hope.” We will reflect on how we, together, hold the smallest seeds of hope tenderly, how we nourish and care for them, and how we are nurtured in the process.
Our biblical stories will start our conversation. We’ll read about Thomas (unfairly nicknamed “Doubting Thomas”), and we’ll reflect on how we nurture trust in a cynical age. We’ll hear the story of the resurrected Jesus feeding his disciples breakfast on the beach, and we’ll talk about the power of shared meals to strengthen our own resolve. We’ll share the beloved words of the 23rd Psalm and wonder about how we can walk together when we face valleys of deep shadows. We’ll hear John of Patmos’ dream of a new heaven and a new earth, and we will claim the ways dreams nurture hope and creativity. We’ll envision the tree of life, with its leaves for the healing of the nations, and consider how we nurture peace and reconciliation.
Along the way, our young people will plant an herb garden – to enliven our meals, to nourish our neighbors,
to nurture hope.
In this Easter season, we give thanks for the gift of hope. In gratitude, we commit ourselves to nurture this gift so it may grow to brings God’s love to fruition in our world.
Peace, Debbie