The Dance Continues, Alleluia!
Easter Vigil, March 30, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds
Readings: Genesis 1: 1-5; Stars Beyond the Stars, Rumi
Psalm Response: Lord of the Dance
Genesis 8: 18-19, 9: 8-16; Remember, by Joyce Harjo
Isaiah 61: 1-7; Broken, Unbroken, by Mary Oliver
Exodus 15: 19-20, 13; I Praise the Dance, by Augustine of Hippo
Romans 1:19-20; Stars Beyond the Stars, by Rumi
Mark 16: 1-8
This is a long service, so I will keep my share of this collaboration short. To me, the message of Easter is that the dance continues: God created the cosmos, including Jesus and all other beings, human and non-human, out of love and nothing else but love. Jesus came to teach us to love one another as God loves us. This was a threatening idea to those whose love was devoted to power, control, and wealth, so it got him in trouble. In fact, eventually he was executed for promoting the ideas that selflessness, sharing, and defending the defenseless is the only real sustainable human path.
Jesus died not for our sins, but for love of us. He died to show us the ultimate act of love: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. God’s plan was not to send Jesus to punish him for what we had done, but to show that the death-dealing ways of this world can be overcome. They can be overcome by authentic justice, by waging peace, by valuing all beings equally, as God does, and by putting away our selfishness. Rejecting violence, greed and discrimination frees us. It frees us to join in the dance, God’s dance of love, established before the world began and continuing through life eternal. Resurrection means we can take part forever, that Jesus’ life continues as the Christ forever, and that our lives are one with His and with those of all creatures. It means that the music will never end, that God’s love is for eternity, and that we are called to invite one another to celebrate it and move with it, now and forever.
To me, the message of Easter is new life! Another chorus, another swing around the dance floor, another chance to invite everybody to join in! Let us rejoice and be glad in it, Alleluia!
Easter Vigil, March 30, 2024
Helen Weber-McReynolds
Readings: Genesis 1: 1-5; Stars Beyond the Stars, Rumi
Psalm Response: Lord of the Dance
Genesis 8: 18-19, 9: 8-16; Remember, by Joyce Harjo
Isaiah 61: 1-7; Broken, Unbroken, by Mary Oliver
Exodus 15: 19-20, 13; I Praise the Dance, by Augustine of Hippo
Romans 1:19-20; Stars Beyond the Stars, by Rumi
Mark 16: 1-8
This is a long service, so I will keep my share of this collaboration short. To me, the message of Easter is that the dance continues: God created the cosmos, including Jesus and all other beings, human and non-human, out of love and nothing else but love. Jesus came to teach us to love one another as God loves us. This was a threatening idea to those whose love was devoted to power, control, and wealth, so it got him in trouble. In fact, eventually he was executed for promoting the ideas that selflessness, sharing, and defending the defenseless is the only real sustainable human path.
Jesus died not for our sins, but for love of us. He died to show us the ultimate act of love: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. God’s plan was not to send Jesus to punish him for what we had done, but to show that the death-dealing ways of this world can be overcome. They can be overcome by authentic justice, by waging peace, by valuing all beings equally, as God does, and by putting away our selfishness. Rejecting violence, greed and discrimination frees us. It frees us to join in the dance, God’s dance of love, established before the world began and continuing through life eternal. Resurrection means we can take part forever, that Jesus’ life continues as the Christ forever, and that our lives are one with His and with those of all creatures. It means that the music will never end, that God’s love is for eternity, and that we are called to invite one another to celebrate it and move with it, now and forever.
To me, the message of Easter is new life! Another chorus, another swing around the dance floor, another chance to invite everybody to join in! Let us rejoice and be glad in it, Alleluia!
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