Sacred Connections: Sharing Easter
Sometimes a purple pansy is more than a colorful spring plant.
Our Gospel on Easter Sunday included the beautiful story of Mary standing weeping outside Jesus’ tomb and how she turns and sees Jesus standing there, but she does not know him. Then Jesus says to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” And Mary, thinking he is the gardener, replies, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” It is only when Jesus calls her by name, “Mary!” that she is able to see him, to recognize him. “Rabbouni!” (Teacher), she responds.
Mary doesn’t expect to see Jesus in the wee hours of that morning. She doesn’t expect to see an open tomb, linen wrappings lying there. Whatever she had envisioned, it isn’t this. So caught up in her inner turmoil, questioning, grief, she is not able to see Jesus as he is now, until he speaks her name.
Many of us have been experiencing inner turmoil, questioning, grief in this time of adjustment to sheltering in place, physical distancing, not being able to gather in all the ways we have taken for granted. This past Sunday, we experienced the disappointment of not having been able to physically be in a shared space for Easter, one of the most joyous, glorious days of worship in our church year.
And yet Easter came this year. And Jesus is risen. Jesus is with us in unexpected ways.
On Holy Saturday about 80 members of the congregation were involved in attempting to deliver Easter flowers, mostly purple pansies, to the local members of our Church of the Redeemer community. Francie and Russ Morrison, with sanitized hands and secure face masks, lovingly prepared each pot. Members of the Flower Guild picked them up and delivered them in bulk to our Neighborhood Connectors. And these Neighborhood Connectors carried the flowers to over 400 Church of the Redeemer homes.
These were not the Easter flowers any of us might have envisioned a mere two months ago, filling our sanctuary with the delicious scents of spring, and the visual beauty of nature’s palette of colorful blossoms. And yet these individual four-inch pansy pots carried with them so much more than the small plant they contained.
Anne Lilly Cone wrote, “Philip and I received our delivery and it is a delight to me that this was able to happen thanks to the many who could do it. I so very fondly remember our sons carefully carrying their pansies home from Easter morning Eucharist and tending them in our kitchen until we could plant beside our front door each year."
So many wrote notes of appreciation, posted photos on social media, expressed their surprise and delight in personal ways. Some described having felt disconnected, and that the gift of this simple flower helped them to feel connected again. For some this would be their Easter flower in the place of honor on the dinner table the next day. For all, there was a message of gratitude, for being thought of, being reached out to, being seen.
As I was talking with Les McNeill last week about the pansies, she offered to look up their meaning in “The Language of Flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, a book her book club had read a couple of months earlier. She quickly reported, they mean, “Think of me”. On so many levels, that felt just right. All of us are wanting all at Redeemer to know we are thinking of each other, holding each other in love and prayer. And in the center of all of that love and prayer is Jesus. Jesus showing up in each of us, for each of us, in beautiful unexpected ways.
