Easter Greetings 2012

Easter 2012

The Universalist Parsonage

                                                                       Stoughton, Massachusetts

Dear friends,

Jesus may have died on that cross in ancient Palestine more than two thousand years ago; but he lives still in the hearts of all of those who seek to live out the eternal lessons of the life he lived. That lesson reverberates to the examples of all great souls; all men and women of goodwill and sacrificial spirit; all of those whom we have loved and held close, whose lives have blessed ours, but who are no longer with us. Even though they’re gone, their lessons live on in our hearts, as much as when they were alive.

            That is one of the great miracles of Easter: that the deeper meanings inherent in our human living transcend our physical existence on this planet.

            Another is the miracle of nature. “Lo, the earth awakes again,” we sing—and isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it about time, too? Such a timeless miracle it is that this earth, which such a short time ago seemed locked in the grip of winter—which seemed all but dead—is now about to burgeon forth with the full refulgence of life. That we are there to witness that miracle each and every year—what a blessing that is! Who can but rejoice at this Easter miracle of springtime come again?

Then there is also the springtime of our souls, which abides as well. That springtime is hope—which perhaps we sense most clearly at Easter. This hope is not always an easy thing. Sometimes, it is a tough hope, a defiant hope, which spits in the face of these badlands which this world puts forth. “If one tries to break new ground, or to walk in a new path, one walks straight to Calvary,” Teilhard de Chardin reminds us. But then, he continues: “Those who spread their sails in the right way to the winds of the earth will find themselves borne by a current towards the open seas.”

Hope is not easy. It can be hard to keep up hope. But hope is that sacred wind which lifts us from the dreariness of the world as it is, toward the resurrection of our spirits and the new life that can be. Hope is the doorway toward the rising that lies in wait, the resurrection in our souls, which yearns to usher forth at Eastertime.

Elizabeth joins me in wishing you all a Happy Easter and the choicest blessings of this season of new life.

                                                                                         Faithfully yours,

  

Rev. Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz

A Prayer for Our Chuch (Membership Sunday, April 1, 2012)

Come, Spirit of Wholeness and Peace, and abide with us at this time and in this place.

May the souls of those departed and those who will come after us crowd with us into this meeting house this day, warming our gathering with the presence of their memory; inspiring our gathering with the radiance of their hope.

The past offers its gifts generously
with strong hands of bold and free-spirited souls
who dared to offer their world (and ours)
a liberating vision of hope and courage.
May we remember gratefully this day
those gifts of this free tradition,
ours for the borrowing in our time:

the gift of a faith that will not rest
until the circle of its community is as wide as the universe,
and human love grows as large as the very heart of God.

May this church ever be
a place of love and caring, for ourselves and the world around us.
May we this day rededicate ourselves to our highest ideals and most noble aspirations; to the call of a faith as expansive as the universe itself.

Amen.

jbs
4/2/2000          4/1/2012