Easter happens when God’s love breaks through our human expectations, upsets our definitions; when God’s love works something unexpected in our hearts and our lives. Easter happens when our little human tombs are exposed for the folly and foolishness that they are. You can’t keep God in a tomb!

In place of a sermon this week, we engaged in an ancient Christian practice called lectio divina or "divine reading" of the Passion Gospel -- listening with the ears of the heart rather than the mind.

We cannot save others from death. Neither can we raise others from the dead. Yet in the midst of death, we can reveal to them and to one another the presence and love of God.

The good news today is not that Jesus will give us courage, patience, fortitude, generosity of spirit. The good news is that Jesus will open our eyes to those things to which we are blind. Not the things we see and need help addressing, but the things we cannot see.

Jesus said, the way to salvation is me, it’s now; it’s this very moment; it is truth – revealed, the one who is speaking to you.

It’s never too late to strike out for the Promised Land....Never too late to claim the promise of God’s future.