CityView Magazine

16 | April 2016 BY DR. MICHAEL GARRETT I remember as a child standing among the testifying azaleas at community Easter Sunrise services at Bryant Park in Richmond, Virginia. Azalea blossoms became visual parables of how the seasons change in God's world. Winter yields to spring, death yields to life and life, somehow, never ends. The swollen attendance in churches on Easter says that at least on this point the church and world still want the same thing – we long for assurance that there's more to life than once and done. T here's no doubt Christians caught a break when the Council of Nicaea declared in 325 CE that Easter would forever be calendared among the rites of spring. What a leg up, to have your central holiday dedicated to the reality of resurrection buttressed by longer days and shorter nights, the return of songbirds and the colorful eruption of a sleeping earth becoming wide awake and alert. Surely the Christian idea of resurrection was written in the ready testimony of the book of nature. e dogwood blossom in legend becomes but another gospel, its petals cross-shaped, its rust-colored points stained by crucifixion blood and its central green cluster a crown of thorns. e witness of spring, though, has a way of changing the Christian resurrection story from history to poetry. As the writer Frederick Buechner points out, in our pluralistic and skeptical age: now it is the teachings of Jesus that are immortal, or the Spirit of Jesus that is undying, or Jesus himself is but a pointer to a kind of truth that is more profound than literal. Hope can be reborn in a despairing soul. Is that not enough? I think the story of Easter resurrection is best heard in near darkness. at's the way it happens in the gospel of Mark. e women show up at Christ's tomb for the first Easter Sunrise Service with only the smallest hint of light to guide their steps. And seeing for themselves the glad good news of resurrection, what do they do? Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. ey said nothing to anyone because they were afraid. (Mark 16:8) When Poetry is not Enough faith CONTACT US TODAY TO LEARN MORE. 910.323.2409 www.fivestar-entertainment.com The Special Event Production Company Professional DJ Services Audio-Visual Rentals Photo Booths Karaoke Lighting Monograms Event Design Video Dance Parties Dance Floor Rentals Planning & Coordination

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