Small Talk

Small Talk

April 2017

As the days grow brighter and warmer, we anticipate the Festival of the Resurrection. Everything in the Christian Church is grounded in this celebration, and it should be.

Easter is about a lot of things but in the final analysis, it’s about hope. It’s that simple and that profound.

As I look at my Complaint Free World wrist band, I think about the importance of hope. The wrist band has given me hope that I can be more patient and optimistic. As I see the seasonal markers show that spring has arrived, I find hope in the tiny plants that work so hard to reach toward the light so that they can grow and flower, renewing the cycle of life. As I remember that God is Still-speaking, I am filled with hope for the new thing that God is doing right here and right now as the Spirit moves in our midst.

On Easter, we often focus on the empty tomb, but today I am thinking about the stone that rested in front of that tomb. That stone was the weight of hopelessness. It takes a lot of move hopelessness. Easter reveals that it can, and has, been done.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that faith, hope, and love remain and that the greatest of those is love. I can’t quibble with that at all. I will say that if Paul had written that hope was the greatest, I’d be fine with that too. Hope makes it possible for us to imagine safety, peace, cooperation, fullness, joy, generosity, and so much more. It is a powerful resource, one that is continually renewed by the friend who listens, the colleague who takes on some extra task, the stranger who takes time to say hello, to buy a cup of coffee for the next person in line or to hand a sandwich and a pair of socks to someone in need.

The story of Easter, the Good News of the resurrection of the Christ, has offered hope to people of faith for thousands of years. I have every confidence that there is more than enough hope for all God’s people, especially when we are eager to share it.

My prayer is that each of you will be here at PACC on Easter Sunday to rejoice in a stone moved aside allowing hope to move so freely among us.

Faithfully,
Jill
The Reverend Jill H. Small

Author: Mark Tuttle

Husband, father, web master