The Untamable Gardener: Resurrection Sunday
“Rosing from the dead”
We are on our way home
from Good Friday service.
It is dark. It is silent.
“Sunday,” says Hanna,
“Jesus will be rosing
from the dead.”
It must have been like that.
A white blossom, or maybe
a red one, pulsing
from the floor of the tomb, reaching
round the Easter stone
and levering it aside
with pliant thorns.
The soldiers overcome
with the fragrance,
and Mary at sunrise
mistakening the dawn-dewed
Rose of Sharon
for the untameable Gardener.
—Paul J. Willis
Happy Resurrection Day, friends! May you know new life, peace, and hope today, tomorrow, and forever. Easter Sunday kicks off a week in the liturgical calendar known as the Easter Octave and a seven-week festival called Eastertide or The Great Fifty Days.
Read all the way to the bottom to join my photo-a-day challenge for the first week of Eastertide!
LOOK: New Gardener, 2017, Janpeter Muilwijk - Source | HT
*Victoria Emily Jones at Art & Theology has curated a fascinating visual history of artist’s depictions of Mary mistaking Jesus as the gardener on Sunday morning.
LISTEN: Here Comes the Sun, Eastertide 2023 playlist
READ: Exodus 14:10-14,21-31; Psalm 118:14-17,22-24; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18
PRAY: Collect for Easter Sunday, the Book of Common Prayer
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
DO: Share a photo for the photo-a-day challenge!
In previous years, we've celebrated the Great 50 Days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday (aka, Eastertide) with a series I've dubbed Practice Resurrection (after the Wendell Berry poem). It's one of my favorite series all year, and I'm excited to start again. To get the photo-sharing party started, I’ve created an eight-day social media challenge for the first week of Eastertide. Use the prompts as simply or creatively as you’d like, add the hashtag #practiceresurrection2023 and tag me @tamarahillmurphy on IG or @asacramentallife on FB.
Can’t wait to practice resurrection together this week, friends!
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
Tamara
You might also enjoy: 50 Ways to Celebrate the Great 50 Days of Eastertide! Choose 1 idea or 50, but whatever you do, do it with gusto! You can read here for a brief description of the liturgical season of Eastertide, and see previous Eastertide posts here.
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1)