Let us count the ways
These are challenging times, in so many ways. Our world is in turmoil. Our nation is more divided than I have known in my lifetime. There seem to be no bridges for reconciliation whether we talk about politics or religion. All seems hopeless and lost.
A little over 2,000 years ago the times might have seemed similar. Jesus came into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey hearing the words “Hosanna”. Many may not know the translation was some variation of “God, save us”. In Judaism it refers to a cry expressing an appeal for divine help. In Christianity, it is more often offered as a cry of praise.
Holy Week can be a time of sadness and suffering. Jesus made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday. Five days later, he hung on a cross in a cruel execution that He knew was about to occur. Three days later, He arose from the dead on what is now considered the most holy day for Christians.
Easter holds memories for almost everyone that grew up in the Christian faith, and many that did not.
My siblings and I had pictures taken each year in front of my grandmother’s azaleas, which always seemed to be in full bloom at Easter. They are the only pictures of my brother and me in suits and my sister in a bonnet. A generation later, my own daughters wore bonnets on the same day, no happier about it than my sister had been.
Easter was a time to gather. Even today, Easter lunch is still one of the busiest times for restaurants. Who does not remember ham, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs and the many other variations of that multi-generational meal?
I have sung the words to “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” for almost seventy years, along with other time-honored Easter hymns. I have heard dozens of variations of the same sermon about Christ on the cross and His resurrection that became the foundation of Christianity.
Along the way, it became less of a story and more of a belief for me. It has been a journey to embrace my own faith and yet accept that others believe differently than I do.
In the Book of Jeremiah, we learn about God’s new covenant, “a promise that God will forgive all the iniquities of those who trust in him and remember their sin no more and all people who trust in him, from the least to the greatest, whoever you are, wherever you’re from, you can know God”.
That covenant gives me the ability to know God on my own, to have my own relationship with Him, and to be free of the constraints of the boundaries that others might arbitrarily set between me and God.
On Easter Sunday, I will wear a tie, in honor of my Mother and Grandmother. I will sing the songs I learned as a child and think of their message that I understand better as an adult. I will pray for those less fortunate than me, and yes, those different than me, just as Jesus taught.
I will listen more intently to the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and all the other lessons that I have been taught and still continue to learn.
No matter our own personal beliefs, there is room at the foot of the cross for us all. The celebration of the resurrection is so much more powerful and meaningful than those things that divide us. God loves us all. Let us count the ways.
o0o
Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]