Were you There?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? 
        Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

This wonderful old African-American Spiritual tells the Good Friday story with profound simplicity. With it's questions it not only engages us in the drama of the ancient story but calls us to examine how and where we fall short of our participation in the life of the resurrected Christ  - the  post-Easter Jesus.  

Don't rush through these last days of Holy Week. It is not that I want you to wallow in the darkness of the events of Good Friday. It is that we cannot truly understand what Easter is all about if we do not accompany Jesus and his friends through the events of the days that proceeded Easter: The bond of love that surrounded this company of friends at the Last Supper. The subsequent betrayal by many of those friends. Jesus' arrest and sentencing. And finally his violent beating, then crucifixion and his death. 

These are hard stories. They are hard because they uncover parts of ourselves that we do not want to recognize, and that we want to leave deeply buried. But these things - these traits - are part of what makes us human. They are our teachers. When we recognize within us the same behaviours as Jesus' disciples at their worst we are able to learn from them. We see how to move through them just as Peter, and Mary and the rest were able to do. It was not easy but these friends eventually became Jesus' best champions, working tirelessly for the same things that Jesus had (and through them continued to do so). For compassion. For peace. For justice. For love.  For the Kingdom of God among us. This is the work that gave them new life. This was their Easter. 
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What "Easter" waits for you this year? What "Easter" waits for Aylmer United Church? How will Jesus' ministry come alive within us in these next weeks and months?