Mtr Kelli Joyce

"...he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him."

Dear Friends in Christ,

One blessing of the Daily Office Lectionary is that occasionally we get little treats like this, out of sync with the Church Year - Easter in September!

What a marvel this story is - the story of the event that is at the very core of the Christian faith. Ordinary women go to complete a grim but ordinary task. Their friend has been executed, and his body needs to be tended to. They've followed this man for years, eaten with him, laughed with him, learned from him. They watched him die. And now they are being faithful friends in the way that makes sense in the world that they know.

And then, suddenly, the world that they know is gone. "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here."

We, too, can find ourselves in the position of these faithful women. We try to do the right thing according to the world that we know, and we are looking, as best we know how, for Jesus of Nazareth. But we may not find him in the places we expect. We have to be prepared for God to surpass all that we believe is possible, upsetting our basic assumptions about life and calling us into an unknown new future.

Christ is risen, risen indeed! Alleluia!

Mtr. Kelli