Lent reminds us that we will never truly understand the depths of the love, grace, and sacrifice of the Cross of Cavalry. But this Lenten season, we have moved a modicum closer. World events have made this move painful and poignant. Pestilence is no longer an old testament problem, but a part of life in 2020.

Lord, we are ready for Easter now.

Fears of Deprivation, isolation, immunosuppression, and depression cloud our conversation and rob our peace of mind. The numbers flashing on the side of a screen of the infected and dead are so commonplace and anonymous that we lose sight of the worth of every single soul known intimately by You.

Lord, we are ready for Easter now.

The nagging questions of “how long?” and “how bad?” and “what’s next?” have no human answers.

Lord, we are ready for Easter now.

We lament that we will not gather as communities of faith as scores of generations past, kneeling next to strangers and friends around the Table, sharing the common cup and partaking of the fragmented and common loaf. We are saddened by the realization that we will not come together on Easter Sunday in the sanctuaries of our choosing. We will not hear the full church singing Alleluia on April 12 and see the arrangement of lilies.

Lord, we are ready for Easter now.

Console us in our fear and anxiety and hopelessness. Strengthen our hope and understanding that Easter is more than a date or a season that passes yearly. May we be your Easter people, raising our voices in times of fear and doubt, being the hands and feet of Jesus and filled with the Spirit in the places bereft of hope. In the depths of Lent and in the circumstances of life, Your ever-present love offers humanity new life and a new future from the brokenness of now.

Lord, we are Easter ready now. Amen.