At the first worship service of 2020 in our congregation, everyone received a piece of paper with a word on it.
My word was “praise”.
It wasn’t immediately clear to me what I should do with that word. Was I to be more grateful? Was I to sing more? (Not my strong suit!). Was I to to be more public about giving thanks to God?
Praise is a good word. But I wondered why it was my word.
I wondered this, but I admit that I hadn’t spent a lot of energy on it. If we were supposed to be lifting up “our word” daily, I wasn’t living up to that.
Recently I put my hand in the pocket of a jacket I hadn’t worn for a few weeks and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. It was the paper with my word on it. Praise.
If I was a little puzzled by what to make of the word “praise” before, I find myself challenged by it now. Now I am wondering not just about why this is “my” word for the year, but how this word fits with the year we are experiencing.
We are living in a worldwide time of pandemic. People in Canada and in most parts of the world are getting sick and too many of them are dying, All of us are living in unfamiliar ways, staying home, staying away from friends and family and anyone who does not live in the same household, and unable to take part in many of our regular activities—including attending church.
Imagine Easter Sunday with all the churches closed. Wait, we don’t have to imagine it; we just experienced it!
It’s just as well that back in January I wasn’t imagining a time like this. If I had, I would have thought that the word “praise” would have no application.
But I would have been wrong.
We learned this week that Easter still happens even in difficult times! Odd that this wasn’t obvious to us, when the Easter story at the centre of our faith is all about joy in a time of loss and desolation…life overcoming death.
We learned this week that we can celebrate the resurrection meaningfully and in community without entering the church building. We have often said that church is not really about the church building, but now we have a new understanding of what that can mean.
We learned this week that we still had things to learn about experiencing Easter.
Hosanna and hallelujah are the ultimate words of praise. Saying these words had particular meaning for us this Easter. We didn’t say them lightly. We said them with feeling. We said them as expressions of hope and faith.
Praise God. Maybe I need to stop THINKING about that word “praise”, and need to simply experience it.
Blessings,
Nora
Nora Sanders is General Secretary of The United Church of Canada.
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[Photo credit: Nora Sanders] |
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