A SACRAMENTAL NEW DAWN

On a cloudy and breezy day in early Spring, a few flowers peek their heads out of the ground. They will provide a glimpse of color into an otherwise dreary scene. They also serve as a foretaste of the new life that is to come. In this world that is God’s creation, death somehow leads to life. Plants that wilted just a few months ago, provide fertilizer to the dirt, while bulbs and seeds below ground feed upon that food as warmth serves like a trumpet call heralding their triumphant moment of new dawn.

The Holy Week vigil we observe resembles this cycle in so many ways. The cross, an instrument of shame, violence, and death, ultimately becomes a trumpet call to us to contemplate new life. A tomb becomes more a place of reverence and love than it does a place of fear and sorrow. A death signifies a new dawn. We are reminded that God’s way is so different than our perception. Death never holds the final word, but rather serves as a gateway to more life. Our Lord obediently approaches the cross, knowing the pain is temporary while the grace is eternal. Darkness covered the land, but only briefly, for the cross we now wear as a sign of faith shines brightly as a beacon of God’s Love. This week reminds us that God is in the business of life, and nothing of this earth can stop that. So, we pause, for a few days, and remember a sacrificial death, before we gather to celebrate a sacramental new dawn. Amen.

-Rev Jeffrey G Mikyska