PASTOR'S MESSAGE - 
APRIL MAY 2002

ZION NEWSLETTER

Volume 17, Number 2

The Easter issue

April/May 2002

Pastor’s Message

Es war ein wunderlich Krieg, da Tod und Leben 'rungen;
das Leben behielt den Sieg, es hat den Tod verschlungen.
Die Schrift hat verkündet das, wie ein Tod den andern fraß,
ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden. Halleluja.           EG 101,4

It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contended;
The victory remained with life; the reign of death was ended.
Stripped of power, no more it reigns, an empty form alone remains
Death’s sting is lost forever! Alleluia!                 SBH 98:2

Martin Luther, 1524  (cf. 1. Korinther / I Corinthians 15,55)

The Magnolia tree in Zion’s garden has long been a much-loved messenger of spring. When I talked to Mrs. Penner and her family before her death, she told me that one of the differences she loved when they moved down from Edmonton/Alberta was the earlier coming of Spring as indicated in the blossoming of the Magnolia. Every year she would write to her relatives in Canada: It’s spring here already, the Magnolia is in full bloom.

This year the Magnolia had a hard time. Because of its sheltered location, the blossoms come out really early, and in some years too early. Frost may come back, and this year it did … Sadly, almost all of the blossoms became damaged or “kaputt”.

Springtime for many people is a powerful metaphor for resurrection and new life. The Austrian Benedictine, Pius Parsch, wrote: “Spring with its transformation of hill and meadow is a great symbol of an event in sacred history and of an event now taking place within the church. Springtime is nature executing her Easter liturgy. Neither poetry nor art can even approximate her grand display. In every corner of her vast cathedral a thousand voices are shouting Alleluia, the voices of creatures that have come to life. Yes, nature holy, sinless, eternal, is holding her Easter rites. Oh, that we had eyes to see this mystery!”

That’s beautifully said, very poetic, convincing – yet only half the message, and even theologically questionable. For nature never in itself is “holy, sinless, eternal”. In nature, there is as much death as there is life. As seen in the Magnolia tree, frost can come back any time – and all the springtime beauty is gone again.

The Easter mystery goes far beyond springtime feelings. It breaks the cycle of nature, the “Werden und Vergehen”, the endless circle of birth and mortality.

The resurrection of Christ brings NEW life. It took a “strange and dreadful strife” to bring that about, a strife never seen before in nature. God himself was to die in his Son, that we may live. Christ’s death “ate”, consumed death, as Luther’s German text dared to say.

In believing the resurrection and celebrating it on Easter, we rejoice in the vision that once and for all death will not be the final fact of life. It’s still there, we all experience it, and are sad every time … BUT even standing at the graves we now sing our song of faith:

“Stripped of power, no more it reigns, an empty form alone remains.
Death’s sting is lost forever! Alleluia!”

Christ is risen – He is risen indeed!
Der Herr ist auferstanden – Er ist wahrhaftig auferstanden

Have a Happy Easter and a blessed Eastertide!
Ein frohes Osterfest und eine gesegnete Osterzeit wünscht Ihnen

Pastor Dr Holger Roggelin

Feiern Sie mit uns – Come celebrate with us:

Easter Day, March 31/ Ostersonntag, 31. März

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