Easter Blessing

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Jim Pitsenberger

When I opened my Sojourners magazine this month I found a few articles about self-care. Yes, self-care in the face of the devastation that we witness daily as workers are summarily fired, the genocide in Gaza unfolds nightly in living color, our healthcare as put at risk by a quack administrator of Health and Human Services. Yes, Medicaid threatened with over $700 million in cuts, threatening to eliminate care for over 40 million Americans. Not to mention the damage this will do to their caregivers.

Yes, self-care is in order. Faced with such a barrage of bad news, it would be easy to turn on to trivia, tune out and drop out. I admit, some days it’s just too much.

But as many of my mentors, people like Bernie Sanders and Stacy Abrams, keep repeating – this is not the time to give up. But we need to be of sound body, sound mind and sound spirit to continue into the fray.

First, keep our eyes on the prize. As we end the liturgical season of Easter, let us rejoice that we have seen the Risen Lord.

We have received him in the rich memories of stories of healing and salvation passed down through scripture and hymn, through grandparents and Sunday school teachers.

The bleeding woman who only seeks to touch Jesus’ garment that she might be healed. The leprous man crying out at the side of a dusty road, the woman caught in adultery. All made whole.

We remember the faithless disciples at Jesus’ trial, all of whom abandon and deny him in his hour of need. All forgiven and redeemed for the most incredible mission ever.

Here is the Risen Christ amongst us in memory and steadfast faith.

Thomas says he will not believe until he can touch the scars and wounds of the Crucified One. Christ is among us in the wounded we encounter daily – sleeping on the streets, in the bombed-out homes of Gaza, in the aching bellies of starving children, not in some far-off place, but right here in America. Yes, and also in such abandoned places as Sudan, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Syria –all made worse with the elimination of USAID programs. These are his wounds. Touch and feel.

The “waste, fraud and abuse” are the bankrupt, inhuman policies of this shambolic administration. Incompetency heaped upon incompetency. What you get with “retribution” and “revenge” politics. All you get!

In the midst of such mendacity, Christ assures us of his healing presence – empowers his followers to exercise the same spiritual power for healing and the renewal of creation. Praying to God, Jesus commends his followers to Holy Guidance and Eternal Presence.

“The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may know that you have sent me and I have loved them even as you have loved me…I in them and you in me, that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me…”

Yes, us. We are empowered as the Risen Christ to this world – we are the Easter Blessing. And might all who see that the hungry are fed, the sick cared for, the dying comforted – might they say, “Alleluia, He is risen.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus assures his followers that he will be with them, and his promise is not empty as followers, members of the Jesus Movement bring healing, reconciliation and justice to those the world regards of no account.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” True in the 80s, true today.

The Risen Christ indeed! I saw the presence of Christ in the installation of my friend Bill Dunn to be the new rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Redlands this last Saturday. What I witnessed was an energized congregation with strong lay leadership raising up young people in the faith, serving the needs of their neighbors – and Fr. Bill, their chief cheerleader. These people in their love for one another and love of neighbor are the real Easter Blessing. Christ is risen, risen indeed in these followers.

I opened my spring issue of The Veteran to note the passing of Joan Davis, a long-serving wife of one of our Vietnam veterans – a member of VVAW for fifty years.

Following the end of that disastrous and immoral war that we had stumbled into, Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), my veteran’s organization, has organized opposition to the cavalcade of senseless wars of our nation. Our motto, “Honor the warrior, not the war.” Is one of respect for those who served. We have held teach-ins on the war machine that drives the insanity of war as the first, go-to option of foreign policy. Yes, we are against invading Canada or Greenland. We have built several libraries and learning centers in Vietnam in a token of reconciliation. We support medical care for those suffering the effects of Agent Orange, and the removal of landmines scattered about their countryside. And this remarkable woman has been at the heart of it all.

She had met her husband, a Vietnam War veteran in Chicago in one of the many street marches against the war machine. Later they moved to Oak Park, where she became a teacher.

As a high school teacher, she fearlessly presented the real history of America to her students – warts, glory and all.

“Joan brought rigor and real debate to her classes, supporting students in learning about the past and helping them understand what it meant to engage with the present and have hope for the future. Through field trips to art and history museums, bringing in guest speakers, and courageously discussing more recent events, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she was able to help thousands of young people find their confidence, opinions and values over the years.”[1]

She founded a group, REALITY, on campus aimed at enlightening students about racism, welcoming diversity, and making the school a more inclusive place, empowering “generations of students to become advocates for equity and justice.” [2]

She led them in exercises of constructive, respectful debate on the issues of the day. “She organized marches for human rights

Beloved by her students, she was an image of the Risen Christ. Countless students over the years have returned to York High School to thank Joan for her influence on their lives. Many have gone into careers and activism that have made the world, made America, a better place.

Yes, risen indeed. This woman, in life and in death has been an Easter Blessing. A harbinger of new life and sanity for a desolate nation that has so often lost its way. In her service to her students and community, she is an incarnation of the Risen Christ. Christ is risen; he is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Last Thursday, another truck from Burrtec arrived with 80 cubic yards of mulch for St. Francis Garden. Arranged for free by Christopher. Six workers: James, Miguel, Denis, William, Joseph and Fr. John — all braved the hot sun to get it spread it on the first of what will eventually be some thirty beds of fresh vegetables – melons, squash, cucumbers, okra, string beans and bell peppers. And later winter vegetables – kale, spinach, lettuce, radishes, cauliflower, beets.

When someone noted that it smelled, I agreed – it smells like Heaven. Smells like the Gospel in Action. Smells of the Risen Christ at the food bank. That smell is an Easter Blessing as are all who’ve worked to bring St. Francis Garden into reality.

I love that poem: “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one.” Here is a sermon that no one can miss. Out in front of God and everyone. People at St. Francis, we are the living Easter Blessing. In our labor of love, even in the hot sun, Christ incarnate. Even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment. How does this garden grow? A nursery rhyme gets it swimmingly.

St. Francis, St. Francis,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And lovely tomatoes all in a row
Zucchini and cabbages all in a row.

An Easter Blessing — a living sign of the Risen Christ among us. Amen.