Earth Care Devotion for Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday April 9, 2023 by Phyllis Windle   John 20: 1-18 Early on the first day named Easter, Mary Magdalene is crying in a garden, mourning for Jesus at his empty tomb. She sees someone nearby, “supposing him to be the gardener.” If Jesus wore what Rembrandt painted – wide-brimmed sunhat, sheathed knife in his belt, hand on a spade – Mary had proof. The man says, perhaps in a whisper, “Mary!” She answers, “Rabbouni!” Jesus spoke of hens, sheep, mustard seeds, and grapevines. He knew the Earth as a place of nourishment, beauty, new life, and toil.         Bless those who mourn as the Northern Hemisphere       turns toward the Sun             For grief has no season and Easter can be bluer than Christmas.       Bless those who misunderstand their own Easter mornings             For ambiguity and confusion are part of resurrection.       When sad or bewildered, may we each know Someone       who whispers our name. I write on February 1st. In Maryland, the first shoots of wild grasses are emerging. The star magnolia’s buds are swelling. Forsythia is blooming. Each adds to the crescendo of new life, building toward summer. For several years, I preached at the middle-of-the-night Easter service in a nearby hospital. Patients’ souls can find new life in hospitals but the dead do not rise. So I distinguished between grand Sunday Easters and the humble, everyday ones that come with spring. My faith is in the latter.         Bless our grand Easters, those with cathedral organs, family feasts,       and White House eggs             For majesty and lavishness can remind us of God.       Bless our humble Easters,       even those with just a hint of green or the opening of a single bud             For sometimes that is all we can love.          Whether majestic or humble, may the beauty of Easter on Earth sustain and nourish us all. Phyllis Windle is a botanist and member of Rockville United Church.     Please consider promoting the PEC devotions in your church and consider using them in sermon preparation and teaching lectionary Bible groups. The Lenten Devotional was made possible by the volunteers contributing their devotions as well as financial donations that covered the cost of recruiting contributors, editing, laying out, web posting and promotion online, by email and social media.  Your donation towards our work is needed and appreciated.  You can give online through our secure website presbyearthcare.org/giving or by mail to PEC Treasurer, P.O. Box 8041, Prairie Village, KS 66208.

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