The Rector's Reflections, April 2007
Easter – Dawn of a New Day

I heard a joke during one of my trips to Northern Ireland. You land on an international flight at Belfast International Airport. The flight attendant announces, "Welcome to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Thank you for flying such and such airline. Please adjust yourwatches to the local time which is 1689." A similar joke is told about landing in the Former Yugoslavia.

Now, on one level, depending who you may be talking with this is not necessarily a joke. In Belfast and the Balkans struggles and conflicts have been going on for centuries. On another level it is an opportunity to laugh at yourself and realize how things appear to those outside the box of local experience.

In the first joke the reference is to Protestant William of Orange defeating Roman Catholic King James I and establishing English and Protestant rule in Ireland. In the second the reference is to Islamic forces driving out Serbian Christian forces from what is now Kosovo. In both instances the struggles continue. Strife and division goes on and on and on sometimes with no end in sight. No end in sight that is until people begin to awaken from being stuck in history and realize that a new day has dawned.

Witness the coming together of the Rev. Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams on March 26 at the Stormont building, Belfast, the seat of government in Northern Ireland. Seeing these two leaders sifting at the same table after decades of being bitter enemies should inspire us all. One of Paisley's aides was heard to remark that what brought his boss to the table was the realization that a new era was beginning; the old ways of anger and violence could no longer be the order of the day.

What happened at the table is an Easter moment. New life has begun. New hope has begun. Getting locked into history is not a comfortable way to live. Paisley will not give up his belief that Northern Ireland should remain a part of the United Kingdom. Adams will not give up his belief that one day Ireland, North and South, should be united. Neither of them can tell us how the story of the one or two nations will end. They will contribute to the peace process and over time, with the help and guidance of God, a viable and workable reconciliation and political process will be achieved. The important thing is that they break the chains that keep them in the past and cause them to repeat the past story.

Easter is all about not being locked into the past. Easter is all about realizing that a new day has dawned and new life begun. Hope dawns with the empty tomb. It is up to us, the witnesses to the empty tomb, to become disciples of new hope and new life. If we want to make Easter a concrete event in our lives and the life of the community outside our walls we need to articulate in word and deed the gift of new life and begin a new chapter in the history of our lives.

Before long the feasibility study will have been completed. We will hear from the survey just what the possibilities are for us in bringing about a new building, a new church, a new moment in our history.

It is tempting to stay put just where we are in our building even in the midst of growth and increased daily activity in the life and mission of St. Bede's. We can get comfortable in our surroundings and not realize that we need to grow structurally even as we grow in spirit. It is so tempting to be locked into our history. But more so, it is challenging to recognize a new era and build a new church that shouts Easter and begins a new era. It is exciting to think of creating new space that proclaims the Glory of God and is a blessing to those who follow us. It is having the opportunity to be in partnership with each other in creating a new House of God whose ownership we can pass on to our children and their children.

Remember: it is our building, our house. God has granted us occupancy in a space that needs new room, new space. The Easter question for us ought to be how to reflect new life and new hope for ourselves and those who will come after us.

May we all be an Easter people who shout Easter in Word, Music, Sacrament and Deed!

When Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams came to the table. they demonstrated that anything is possible if we just have faith and trust in the other. A new Northern Ireland will arise, no doubt about it.

For us the call from God this Easter is that we have faith and trust in our future as a Holy People of God. Easter blessings to all of you. May you all reflect the joy, hope and love of the Risen Jesus.

Peace
Fr. Richard

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© 2007 St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico