This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the LORD their God be with them.” – 2 Chronicles 36:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 12, 2020): 2 Chronicles 36

It is a strange Easter Sunday. Admittedly, as I sit and write these words, Easter is still just over a week in the future, but we are already starting to prepare for an Easter celebration like none other. On Easter Sunday, a few of us will gather in an empty building. There will be no grand Easter hats this year, nor what was a tradition when I was growing up of putting on our brand-new spring clothes. My sister would put on her new Easter dress, which was a bit of a challenge for a girl that always seemed to me to be stuck in between doing the things that girls do and wanting to toss it all away and release the inner tomboy that was crying to get out. And we would go to church, where often the largest crowd of the year would gather in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

But none of this can be a reality this year. This year we sit alone in our houses, afraid to venture outside of our bubble because of the COVID-19 virus that is making its persistent rounds. We worry about how our economy is ever going to recover from months of dormancy once, and maybe if, things return to normal. The year 2020 will be remembered because of what we have missed; our holy celebrations, family anniversaries, and birthdays, all celebrated from within our growing areas of isolation, and all observed with the gnawing absence of some of the people that we care about the most. We didn’t choose this; it was thrust upon us. And all we can do is try to live to see the other side.

Maybe on this Easter Sunday, it is appropriate to remember the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E. When the city fell, it felt like nothing could ever be the same again. The inhabitants of Jerusalem as they watched their beloved Temple fall, whether God would ever hear their prayers again. The Psalmist wrote his lament from the strange land into which they were being taken. “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion … How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land” (Psalm 137:1, 4)?

Of course, the Chronicler did not write his words as the Temple was falling. It might have been that he had never even seen the Temple, or lived in Jerusalem. He writes his words from the other side of the story. He knows that while Judah suffered, it would also be restored and resurrected. And he was a witness of that resurrection, sure in the knowledge that better days were still ahead.

I often stress that Easter Sunday is not our High Holy Day. The holiest day on the Christian Calendar is Good Friday because it was on that day that Jesus Christ died for our sins.  But there is no doubt that while our Holy Day is Good Friday, we are the Resurrection People. We know that our current trial will end, and we will be restored. Our current isolation is only temporary. We have heard a similar decree to the one heard by the Chronicler. Humpty Dumpty will, somehow, be put back together again. God has declared it, and we believe the declaration. And on the path back to that restoration, God will be with us every step of the way.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 13