Food for the Journey – 4/15/2021

It’s not a good time to put bird (bear) feeders out, but I’ve been enchanted by the small songbirds that have been serenading my mornings, and which are particularly active in my backyard in the later afternoons. So on the deck railing I’ve put out a small terracotta plate with bird seed, to welcome them back and encourage their song. How I love their cheerful twirping and playful swooping in the cedars. Spring! Hope and new life and happy energy!

Yet the other morning as I sat in my “prayer chair” by the backyard window, the unwelcome snow cover and the horrific news of the morning dealt a blow of harsh reality. The snow was not unexpected. But hearing of yet another death and more violence in the streets, against the fraught backdrop of the Chauvin trial, my safe little place felt the shudder of a world in pain. O Lord, how long? Where is Your peace and justice? Why do we, we who are all your beloved children, war against each other? I felt the temptation to despair, and again, the rise of my own anger and judgement towards others.

So I’ve been thinking these days of a phrase from a sermon that has stuck with me from many years ago – that we live as Easter people in a Good Friday world. What does that mean for me, for us as followers of Christ, today? It’s hard many days, when there is so much hurt. But the Psalm 4 reading for today offers hope and wisdom, with confidence that our anguished pleas are heard by God with graciousness, offering a peace that is beyond what the world gives. And I take to heart the sage advice of verse 4: “When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds and be silent.”

In our silent ponderings, may we hear the quiet voice of the resurrected Jesus saying, “Peace be with you”. This is the peace that comes from the spirit within, the peace that we as “Easter people” can each bring into our corner of the world, with words of hope and justice and new life.

And on that cold snowing morning? The birdseed was frozen into a small ice pond in the plate. Yet the birds continued to come, to peck away at it, to sit on the hard surface, warming it with their bodies. Still singing. And as the ice softened and eventually melted, their patience was rewarded not only with food, but with refreshing drink. And they sang an Easter song of joy.

Resurrected One, listen to the prayers of your people, and grant us the sustaining nourishment of your peace, for the sake of your world today. Amen