By Katie Murray
Happy Easter, church!
Yes, that greeting is still appropriate for the next six weeks. Today we find ourselves in the liturgical season called Eastertide, a season marked by our continued celebration of the resurrection, with special attention paid to Jesus’ 40 days of ministry before his ascension.
This second Sunday of Easter is also known as “low Sunday” which is meant to contrast with the “high” festival of Easter the week before. Those of us in church work jokingly interpret “low” as an indicator of church attendance on this day, especially when compared to the overflowing pews of the week before.
Today our primary Scripture will examine what has generally been interpreted as a “low” moment for the disciple Thomas — a moment history has not let him forget. This poor guy has had to carry around the nickname “Doubting Thomas” for over 2,000 years. Can you imagine?
Eastertide affords us the opportunity to spend more intentional time discerning the implications of the resurrection in our current context. If we stick with this “low” theme of the day, what does it look like to celebrate the resurrection when there is obvious pain, suffering and war in our very midst? Several lines in our hymns today may help us in our discernment.
Our opening hymn declares that Christ is alive, even in the places where hope has died, and will continue to bring the good news until all creation rings with joy, justice and praise. As we sing this hymn today and hear from Michael Etcheson of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, we invite you to consider how you are being called to participate in Christ’s work of reconciliation.
Our final hymn seems to almost be written with those moments of doubt in mind, encouraging us to “raise our spirits” and “see what love can do and dare.” And I would be remiss to not point out one of my favorite lyrics in all hymnody, which instructs us to counter the pain of this world with a hearty “Christ is risen! Get you gone!”
May this Eastertide meet us in both the low and high moments and give us the strength to boldly proclaim, “Christ is alive!”