A Letter from Pastor Gene
When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was “One Monster After Another” by Mercer Mayer. In it, Sally Ann writes a letter to her friend Lucy Jane only to have one monster after another ambush the missive on its path. A mailbox is raided by a Stamp Collecting Trollusk, a postman is almost knocked off his motorcycle, there is a huge Typhoonigator at sea and a paper munching Yalapappus nearly succeeds in stealing the letter. Thankfully, this weird and wacky book resolves well with the letter delivered where it belongs while the wonderfully creative monsters slink back to wherever they came from with a smirk on their snerk. Lately, though, say over the last three months, I’ve been thinking more and more about this book as a metaphor for what the Ott family is going through. Many of you have heard the stories by now but suffice it to say that 2024 has been “one monster after another.”
However, that’s nothing to compare with what the Disciples went through during what we now call Holy Week. From the triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the rapid sunset that leads us to Maundy Thursday in the Upper Room, through to the arrest, interrogation, torture, and Crucifixion on Good Friday, the 12 (and other folks not officially included in the count) were on a horrible ride. While Mayer’s monsters are all cute and funny, the monsters of human rage, anger, Roman governance, and the fickle nature of our human condition are truly terrifying. And yet it’s these monsters that lead us to an empty tomb on Easter morning…
That said, you could forgive the two disciples and Mary for thinking it was just one more monster to be overcome. Imagine, after going through the worst week ever, only to arrive early on that morning to find the body of Jesus come. Will the monsters never stop? It’s amazing to me that there isn’t a bigger scene in the garden; I would have completely lost it at that point. After everything, now this? It’s little wonder Mary doesn’t recognize Jesus.
And yet, in that moment, with the wrappings lying in the tomb, no word on where Jesus is, and before his words bring Mary back to a new reality, something incredible is born: hope. The hope that explodes from the empty tomb is truly life-changing. Life and faith are no longer about things that have come before, but only what will come after. The empty cross and the empty tomb (even more so) remind us that love will always triumph over hate. Peace will always triumph over war. Hope will always triumph over fear. To paraphrase Hebrews, hope is the evidence of things we cannot see (in this case God) working in the background the whole time even and maybe especially when we cannot perceive it. This is the message of Easter; no matter how many monsters may come along, they’re never the end of the story. Hope has entered our lives and things will never be the same again.
Happy Easter.
OTJ,
PG