Pastoral Ponderings—Easter in Real Life
Darling Wife Karol’s mom could have died at any time, especially in recent years when she has been in skilled nursing care and in declining health, but it didn’t happen until just this past week, right before Easter. With this timing, I can’t NOT think of it in terms of a real-life Easter inspiration.
She and Karol’s dad became Methodists ages ago BECAUSE of faith conflicts: she was raised Lutheran, he a Baptist, so that neither were able take Communion in the other’s church, and even Baptism meant something quite different in those traditions. When he was in the Air Force, they asked their Chaplain for suggestions (Go military Chaplains!). Being a good Methodist, the Chaplain pointed out that they could both take Communion together and bridge their Baptism differences in a Methodist church. They agreed to become Methodists, thereby setting the stage both for Pastor Karol’s being such a blessing in ministry with us, and last week, for the peace with which Karol’s mom left this world for her heavenly home.
I am delayed in sending this note due to a crazy week with another of our long-time church pillars passing just before Easter. Is this an exclamation point on the message that though death is real, it is not the end?
Easter shows us the many facets of how Jesus’ resurrection transforms us, and transforms the end of death into the beginning of life. Because of the Resurrection, we knew that for Karol’s mom, Candy, and all who are lost in the faith, that we are just coming to the end of a paragraph, not the end of the story. At the end of an earthly life in Christ, we can say with St. Paul, “to live is Christ, to die is gain,” so that in the gift of Easter, the end of this life is the beginning of a more full life in Christ in some other way.
In faith and hope—Pastor Jim