The More You Look, the More You See
Since my last post, I learned something and have noticed lots of things. I shared a photo of a purple/pink budding tree that I saw and that MaryAnn shared from the front of her home. I learned that it actually has a name - not just “purple/pink budding tree.” It is commonly known as the Eastern Redbud or (more scientifically) cercis canadensis. It is a favorite of early season pollenators and its buds are unique as they bloom directly on the branches and trunk. The flowers are also edible and have a slightly sour taste. I don’t have a very good sense of taste and when I tried one Monday morning, I didn’t taste much. There’s plenty more you can find online about this beautiful tree.
But here’s the other thing. Since I wrote that last reflection on Thursday, I have been seeing these trees everywhere. It isn’t that they all of a sudden appeared but I had an attentiveness to them because of that experience with Troy and MaryAnn. So, my eyes have been drawn to that purple/pink color all around.
Its very similar to what I shared in my Easter message on Sunday morning. I shared that resurrection wasn’t just something from a story 2,000+ years ago but is happening all around all the time, even, and often in defiance of, evidence to the contrary. It is in nature (Winter shifting to Spring). it is in relationships. It is in communities. it is in the rhythms of life. Fr. Richard Rohr often shares his threefold pattern of life of - order, disorder, and reorder. Another way of explaining those would be - life, death, and resurrection. Another framework I’ve heard (and is the one I usually speak to) is that the rhythm of all of life is birth, life, death, and resurrection, repeat. Parts of life might be in different stages but I do truly believe that when we are in a time of disorder/death, that reorder/resurrection is sometime ahead. I’m holding tightly to that hope and trying to live that hope in a time right now that feels like massive disorder and too much death.
In his Easter reflection yesterday, Fr. Rohr wrote this:
I believe the resurrection of Christ is saying that the final judgment has already happened. It’s nothing we need to fear. It’s nothing we need to avoid or deny. God’s final judgment is that God will have the last word! Easter reveals that there are no dead ends; ultimately, nothing is going to end in tragedy and crucifixion. Of course we look around us, at history and at life in its daily moments and it seems, “No, that isn’t true.” And yet, ever and again, here and there, more than we suspect, new life breaks through for those who are willing to see and to cooperate with this universal mystery of resurrection.1
The reminder in this for me? If I want to be angry at the world (and there’s plenty to be angry about), then by all means I can center on the things that will keep me angry. But if I want to live in resurrection and in hope, center on the things that remind me that, even in spite of so many things, resurrection and restoration are still ahead and are also present here and now. And in centering on those, it allows me to engage that which needs to be changed and needs transformation and healing.
So with that, here’s a bunch of the Eastern Redbuds I have seen, starting with my favorite of all of them.
And of course Scout with some more…
A few more notes:
Pop Culture Pastors Hour - The Pitt
A new episode of PCPH is posted! This time we were talking the HBO Max show, The Pitt, with two real-life chaplains! Christine Vaughan Davies and Amy Snow! Check it out right here and you can also subscribe to the podcast feed on Apple or Spotify
New Music! U2 drops two surprise EPs!
Anyone who has been on here for a while knows that I am a U2 mark in a big way. So, I was so excited for the surprise EP, Days of Ash that dropped on Ash Wednesday a few weeks back - it is a collection of songs speaking into the very present events right now and several of the songs especially gave words to what I have been feeling.
But then, on Good Friday (the Friday before Easter), they dropped ANOTHER surprise EP - this one called Easter Lily that was a collection of songs that spoke to the hope of rebirth and restoration that is possible (and similar to what I wrote above). I waited to listen to it until Scout and my walk on Easter morning and I am so glad I did. What a treasure of new songs.
You can check them both out on any of the streaming services or you can purchase digital tracks as well. Personally, I’d say that my top five from the two EPs are (in no particular order)
American Obituary (Days of Ash)
The Tears of Things (Days of Ash)
COEXIST (I Will Bless the Lord at All Times) (Easter Lily)
Scars (Easter Lily)
Resurrection Song (Easter Lily)
In that last song are these lyrics:
Love extravagantly
and without regret
If there’s anything better
I’ve not heard it yet
An Action Step
With that lyric in mind, I cannot leave this post without asking this of you. Regardless of your feelings about the current American administration, if you are an American citizen, I am asking you to please contact your representative and your senators. Ask/tell them to do what they can to stop the actions threatened by the president in what he posted online on Easter morning. There is no place in our world right now for attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure (bridges, power plants, etc). I do not support, of course, the Iranian actions of doing that to other countries, but I can take action to do what I can to stop it from our own country. I called my legislators on Monday and I will be calling again today asking them to do what they can to take action against these promised attacks. These actions are not the way of civility, love, or resurrection.
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed
Very late getting to this email. We are looking terrible in the eyes of the world. But the Redbuds are beautiful.