There is a reason why many churches begin their Easter Vigil service outside in their columbarium, or memorial garden, or church cemetery. It hearkens back to the ancient Christian practice of worshipping in the catacombs, celebrating resurrection in the midst of the dead as a reminder that death is not the end. The light of Christ: Thanks be to God.
It is often easy to see signs of resurrected life in the signs and wonders of spring in the western hemisphere. The budding trees, the flowers emerging from bulbs planted in the fall. But wait, even those signs harken back to images of death. Trees must lose their leaves before they can bud. We have watched them bare all winter. Bulbs must be planted in the fall, as leaves fall, harvest is gathered, and growth lies dormant, waiting in stillness. All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
This Easter in particular, I feel like I am celebrating new life while in the midst of the communion of saints. I have never experienced Easter in this way before. Somehow, imagining the communion of saints, all those who have gone on before, either in the year 2020, the first few months of 2021, or hundreds, thousands, years before that – I can picture them, gathering around us, surrounding us as we slowly creep out of a pandemic, as we try to imagine what new life will look like post-vaccine, as we wait in hope to no longer be afraid. And one was a doctor and one was a priest and one was slain by a fierce wild beast.
They surround us. They support us. They pray for us. We have a funny “both/and” with our idea of saints in the Episcopal Church. On the one hand, we believe that there were exemplary Christians who lived lives of great faithfulness that we can emulate and celebrate. On the other hand, we call every baptized person who has died a saint in the communion of saints. Which is correct? Well… both. Our lives are lived, our faith has ups and downs, but God is merciful and just and does not leave or reject us. Sunday School teacher: What do you think Jesus did when he went down to hell for those three days? The child: He was looking for his friend Judas, of course.
There is a mural inside the Episcopal Church of St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco. It is a mural of dancing saints. And it is all the saints in every shape, form, color, age. And they dance around the church. And when worship is over, the congregation joins hands, and dances out of the church, a reminder that that they are surrounded always by the communion of saints, and they themselves are saints going out into the world as disciples to share God’s love. This Easter, may you join the dance and feel surrounded by the love of all the saints. Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
You can watch a video of the Dancing Saints and read more about it here.