On Easter Sunday, Rachel Daningburg performed this poem in our 10:30 service.  It is posted below for you to read and reread.

The words continue to have an impact on my own understanding of what the resurrection is all about!

[from the desk of Tim Lambert, Worship Arts Director]

Because He Is Risen: A Poem for Easter

 Written by Gerard Kelly

Because he is risen,

spring is possible

in all the cold hard places

gripped by winter

and freedom jumps the queue

to take fear’s place

as our focus.

Because he is risen.

Because he is risen,

my future is an epic novel

where once it was a mere short story.

My contract on life is renewed

in perpetuity.

My options are open-ended;

my travel plans are cosmic.

Because he is risen.

Because he is risen,

healing is on order and assured

and every disability will bow

before the endless dance of his ability

and my grave too will open

when my life is restored,

for this frail and fragile body

will not be the final word

on my condition.

Because he is risen.

Because he is risen,

hunger will go begging in the streets

for want of a home

and selfishness will have a shortened shelf-life

and we will throng to the funeral of famine

and dance on the callous grave of war

and poverty will be history

in our history.

Because he is risen.

And because he is risen,

a fire burns in my bones

and my eyes see possibilities

and my heart hears hope

like a whisper on the wind

and the song that rises in me

will not be silenced

as life disrupts

this shadowed place of death

like a butterfly under the skin

and death itself

runs terrified to hide.

Because he is risen.