Sitting in my favorite chair this morning, enjoying my coffee and word games, a brightness caught my eye. I went out on the deck to receive this gift of an Easter sky. It is a gift because in the church today is the beginning of the remembrance of what we call the Passion - Jesus' arrest, trial, and crucifixion. It's a pretty heavy time, and what joy it is to be reminded ahead of time that whatever we are walking through right now, on Easter we will receive fresh hope.
Today is Maundy (from the Latin mandatum, commandment) Thursday. Tonight at church we will remember and celebrate Jesus' Last Supper with his friends. His commandment is to love each other as he loved us. That means to give and receive love freely, that it might reach to the ends of the earth.
Tomorrow we remember how that insistence on love in the face of the power of empire led to his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. The powers of this world don't take kindly to someone telling them they're not all mighty or everlasting. The powers stripped away everything earthly from Jesus - his friends, his clothes, his very life - but they could not strip away God's love. "Forgive them. They don't know what they are doing." Those are the last words of love.
Saturday we will take our Sabbath rest, as Jesus' friends did, pondering what we are to do in a world without God's love walking around in the person of Jesus.
And on Easter morning, whatever the sky looks like, we will remember that the light shines in the darkness. The tomb where Jesus' broken body had been laid is empty, denying the powers that be the satisfaction of a lasting victory. Whatever feels like it is dying around us, even now new life is getting ready to spring up. Watch for the signs. It may be a sunbeam on a cloudy day, the first daffodil of spring, or a baby being born. It may be a phone call from an old friend, a heart leaping with new love, or the tenderness of reconciliation. God's love is still here - how are we embodying it that others might see it?
As we walk through these next days together, may we walk in love. May we cling to love. May we spread love. It is the only thing that lasts.