The Sage spoke at an Easter service for a local church. Afterward, a member, quite upset, said, "You never affirmed Jesus' physical resurrection. Do you believe Jesus physically arose?" "I don't believe he did or didn't." "What?! Why?" "Christ can never be kept inside a belief - that's a tomb. Where love arises, Christ arises - what else matters?" "Well!" said the man. "I don't think you're even a Christian." "That's okay," said the Sage, "Christ isn't either."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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This was Easter Sunday morning. I decided I, not a frequent 'church-goer,' as I had been for most of my life, needed to attend Easter worship somewhere. And what if Monday, someone asked this chaplain about how Easter worship was the previous day? Well, well ...
So, I was going to go, even though I did not want to. I had no interest in going. But it was the dutiful thing to do - so I thought.
I got in the truck and drove toward the church sanctuary I attended now and then. Some presence was clear, now and as before leaving home: saying, "Don't go." I strongly sensed this presence accompanying me. I stubbornly continued onward, anyway.
When getting to the church building, I got out and started walking to the front door. I stopped: "I can't do this." I realized I could not participate in what I had come to call the "Easter show." Easter, yes. But not a faux exhibition put on in so many worship buildings once a year.
I returned to the truck, got in, and began driving off. I decided to go for groceries at the IGA. Then, I would return home.
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I moved the cart up and down the aisles. Picking up something here and there. Meeting persons, greeting, being greeted, moving about in a contented, joyful flow. Soon, it dawned: "Here, in this grocery store, I'm experiencing Easter." So, yes, in IGA - celebrating Life, experiencing Christ. Christ meeting Christ in simple greetings of kindness, of love-giving among persons who had never before met on this Earth.
I have celebrated Easter Day inside and outside worship buildings for 62 years. That day, the IGA was a sanctuary. I worshipped with others. Easter celebration was not an Easter show. This was Easter. Not a day on a calendar. Not a religious holiday. A something finally unnamable but real in our hearts.
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If we share love in simple ways, we enjoy Easter every day, wherever, and with whomever. Easter is now, not then. Easter is not a religious rite: it is more, even in a grocery store.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and title and place of photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
