By: Rev. Abby Vanderbrug
When my husband and I became eligible to receive the vaccine, I was overwhelmed with a sense of deep joy about being able to return back to some of the things we have missed. Oh, to have travel plans again! To be able to gather in groups of people that we love! To sit in the stands at baseball games! Our list is long and I’m sure you have your own list too. How glorious it will be.
But with this very tangible light at the end of the tunnel, I have also found myself wondering what the lasting effects of this will be on us. Who will be after this? What will we take with us? What are we not going to return back to? I wonder. The year long lent of a Global Pandemic is certain to have transformed us, but only time will tell how.
A transformed life is one we should be familiar with as Christians, indeed transformation is at the core of our Christian story. The old is taken away and a new life has come. Easter is the ultimate story of transformation. Jesus transforms the tragedy of death on the cross into a symbol of hope, light, and life.
There are an incredible number of transformation stories throughout the Gospel, people encounter Jesus and their life is never the same. Just think of the disciples, leaving their fishing business to follow Jesus around. Or, Zaccheus the tax collector who gives away half of his possessions after Jesus invites himself over for dinner. Or, perhaps the most famous transformative Biblical character, Paul, who one day is a fierce opponent of Christians and then is willing to be stoned for them. Clearly, Jesus had a way of turning people’s lives inside out and upside down.
Our lives are also transformed through difficult and challenging experiences, like the Corona-virus pandemic, with which the Christian story can help us navigate. Because transformation is at the core of who we are, our faith can be the guide that walks with us through the depths of the darkness. We know the story does not end with darkness. We know that some way and somehow the light will always shine through.
How will we be changed, transformed? Who will we be after this? I do not know. But I do know that being a Christian means that I’m going to look forward with hope that this time, this painful year, is transforming us into something beautiful.
The poet Wendell Berry has a famous line from his poem “The Mad Farmer’s Manifesto” that simply says, “Practice Resurrection.” I am going to hold on to that in this coming year. If we want a resurrection after this hard year, it will be up to us to be it.
We practice resurrection everytime we bring light into this hurting world. Every time we invite joy, truth, forgiveness into our life. Everytime we become closer, instead of farther apart. Every single time that we choose love is practicing resurrection.
How might you practice resurrection in a post-covid world? What might that resurrection look like for you? I wonder.
