New Life for Gardens and the Church

Lectionary reflections for Easter Day (C)

by Katie Sherrod

Readings for Easter Day, Year C, Apr. 11, 2004

Psalm 118:14-29

Acts 10:34-43

Colossians 3:1-4

Luke 24:1-10

All four Gospels have women as the first to discover the empty tomb.

Luke tells of a quiet dawn visit by the women, where they discover the stone rolled away from an empty tomb. While they puzzle over this, two men in dazzling white appear and give them the astonishing news of the risen Christ.

Matthew's more dramatic version for the early service has a great earthquake and the angel descending from heaven with an “appearance like lightening and his clothing white as snow” to roll the stone away.

No wonder the first thing the angel says to the terrified women is “Do not be afraid.”

Mark's is the only account in which the women keep silent about their astonishing discovery. But John's is the account that always resonates with me.

In John, Mary Magdalene comes alone to the tomb, so early it is still dark. It is in John's Gospel that Mary sees Jesus, but mistakes him for the gardener. Only when Jesus says her name does the Magdalene know him. This speaks to me, for it is in gardens that I most often encounter Jesus.

In John, Mary Magdalene comes alone to the tomb, so early it is still dark. It is in John's Gospel that Mary sees Jesus, but mistakes him for the gardener. Only when Jesus says her name does the Magdalene know him.

This speaks to me, for it is in gardens that I most often encounter Jesus.

Because of publication deadlines, I have been reading all the Easter Gospels in the fourth week of Lent. But that's OK, because I've been living in an Easter world for weeks now.

I live and garden in Texas, so I am blessed to witness resurrection much earlier than those who live in colder climes. This means the liturgy of my garden is way ahead of the one in my church.

We are barely past Ash Wednesday in the parish when my garden starts its own Holy Week. While we worship under purple drapes in the church, in my garden the ancient white irises already are unfurling white flags that will obliterate the Lenten purple of the grape narcissus.

By the time Lent Two arrives, the irises have grouped themselves into entire choirs of white, purple, gold and burgundy and the daffodils are heralding the call of new life with their white, yellow and peach-colored trumpets. Butterflies appear by Lent Four or Five, having already forgotten their empty chrysalis tombs.

And then the bluebonnets appear.

Once our State Flower blooms, keeping a proper Lent is almost impossible for me. We may still be plodding through Rite One, but outside, the whole newly reborn world is shouting “Alleluia!”

For me, the bluebonnet is the perfect symbol of Easter.

The bluebonnet is a survivor. After flowering, each plant produces many seeds, which get broadcast around the mother plant when the seedpods open. But only a small percentage of these seeds will germinate the next year. The others won't germinate for three or five or even fifteen more years. This ensures species survival during the prolonged droughts that can plague our state.

I'm encouraged by the thoughts of those seeds waiting out the dry periods, all the Good Fridays of our lives, needing only a little rain to spring forth into new life.

Our Episcopal Church broke new ground at our last General Convention, and that ground has hardly had time yet to bear fruit. For months, a noisy few have been predicting barrenness, and indeed, appear willing to salt the ground to make it so.

Our Episcopal Church broke new ground at our last General Convention, and that ground has hardly had time yet to bear fruit. For months, a noisy few have been predicting barrenness, and indeed, appear willing to salt the ground to make it so.

But Easter teaches us that new life springs from empty tombs, that what might appear barren is indeed fruitful, that what was old is made new.

There are among us myriad seeds about to spring forth into new life.

So do not be afraid. The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!

Katie Sherrod is editor of Ruach , the journal of the Episcopal Women's Caucus. She is a freelance writer and television producer based in Fort Worth, Texas, and a contributing editor to The Witness . She may be reached by email at ks1246@aol.com .