And with that Ed reached down into a brown grocery bag pulled out a brightly wrapped package and placed it on Mrs. Jone's lap.  "I brought an Easter present for you and Megan."  She tore into the gift like she does her milk and cookies, hands shaking like a child's expectant grasp on Christmas morning.  She held up a baby-doll's dress, pink and green lacy-lace with matching bonnet.  Her eyes beheld the eyes of God's beloved, Ed, the incarnation of Jesus in her life.  "It's for Megan, for Easter.  We can all go to church together."

There are times in our life that to see Jesus shouldn't actually scare us silly, but make us slow down and pay attention.  For if we will just let him show himself, in each and every moment of our lives it's possible that we will see Jesus.  The problem is that we don't notice the grime that has gathered up on our Jesus-glasses or Jesus-ears and heart.  Life becomes deadened and dull.  Our spirituality seems to focus on nothing more than "an unknown God," and our souls seem only capable of holding onto "nothing in particular."

The scary part is that to be able to see Jesus, to embrace a life with Jesus, requires vulnerability.  It may require us to walk down the hall with jeering around us, so we can turn in a door and discover that Jesus looks a lot like Ed and Mrs. Jones, and that following Jesus requires nothing more than allowing our lives to be centered in empathic hospitality, life committed to another. To see Jesus, can look like dancing on the rogation parade route, singing or at least looking a bit like a lunatic, singing a tad off-key, not giving two hoots about bystander--discomfort with our outrageous religious displays because we're celebrating the presence of Jesus in our midst, and we're determined to walk every step of the way with God.

I believe with all my heart that Jesus smiles down on us with maternal pride as we wrestle with our next formative steps as a congregation, trying our very best to make everyone feel welcomed and cared for, and finding a way to provide a seat for each person that comes in the door.  All we have to do is to let someone in particular, the Jesus who rose triumphant from the powers of death, come to live among us, and reveal God's prophetic hospitality one lunatic, one Megan, one Ed, one Body of Christ after another.  Blessed Easter!  Know above all that you are God's beloved. Even if sometimes it scares you silly!