Alleluia!

      Alleluia! He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

     We are told that in the early morning darkness, the birds sing to find one another. That’s a beautiful image for this morning. Some of us have been waiting to pull out our Easter baskets and start looking for the hidden eggs. Some of us have been wandering around in the dark, hoping against hope for the dawn to come. And this morning, even while it’s still dark we are listening for the birds. One by one and two by two they sing. They raise their voices. Each one singing because that is her way, that is what she knows to do. Each one singing, each one listening. One by one and two by two, It is by singing they find their way back to one another.

     This morning we will be singing some of my favorite hymns:
                    Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
                    Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
                    he arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
                    He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!
And
                    Now the green blade rises from the buried grain, wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
                    love lives again, that with the dead has been; Love is come again like wheat arising green.
 
     And prayers will be prayed: The silence breaks into morning. That One Star lights the world. The lily springs forth to life and not even Solomon…Let it begin with singing and never end! Oh, angels, quit your lamenting! Oh, pilgrims, upon your knees in tearful prayer, rise up, and take your hearts and run! We who were no people are named anew God’s people, for he who was no more is forevermore. (“And the Glory” by Ann Weems from Kneeling in Jerusalem)
 
     Pilgrims, we have come to this Easter morning when light is greater than darkness, hope greater than despair, love lives again and is so much stronger than fear. Alleluia! He is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!