Bishop Hutterer: Swimming through Eastertide

Photo by Dallas Morgan on Unsplash

Many of us think of Easter as one day—a day of colorful clothes, full churches, and glorious music as we celebrate the Risen Christ. This year, we did not receive that glorious Sunday we expected. As we swim through the Eastertide of this year, perhaps we can see we are being gifted with an Easter season rather than just one day, an Easter that continues to expand.

As I work from the isolation of my home, I find myself disoriented in time. What hour of the day is this? What day of the week? Sundays can be just as confounding as I worship online with various congregations in the synod without ever opening the door of my house.

On good days, I am up with the rising sun to walk and enjoy the cool weather, the quiet, and bird’s songs. Those dawn mornings and my morning devotions are a time when I see the world safely in God’s hands. Then the pace of the day increases. I again view the world through my eyes, and can feel as if everything is out of control.

As our period of anxious waiting continues, I find greater and greater comfort in these mornings of sunrise and God’s word. I feel the spirit of Easter growing every day.

We proclaim ourselves an Easter people, but often forget that message in the days that follow. Like the disciples, we proclaim Christ is risen! and then look around dumbfounded, sometimes paralyzed in fear, in a new world that doesn’t fit with the story we told ourselves.

Like the disciples, we make do with what we have. We share our resources and help our neighbor. In shaky voices, we set out to share the Good News of the one thing in which we are sure: that through Jesus Christ, God reaches out to show us God’s love and teaches us how to love. As we experiment with new ways of proclamation, God uses us to be church.

I am grateful for your voice in the chorus of the Grand Canyon Synod.

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The Rev. Deborah K. Hutterer
Bishop
Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA