Pastor's Reflection 2026-03-19
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
My mom has always had a green thumb. Growing up, our backyard in Stockton was always alive with various vegetable plants, fruit trees and flowers; all planted and nurtured by my mother. She inherited her green thumb from her mother. I, however, found out that a green thumb is not a hereditary trait, at least not like the one my mom and grandmother possessed. Back in college, someone gave me a beautiful plant as a housewarming gift. It was full and lush. That poor plant withered and died soon thereafter because, well, because I don’t have a green thumb. It turned into a sad looking thing full of grey sticks and dead leaves. When I drove home to Stockton a few months later, I brought my dead plant along, thinking I would give my mom the pot. My mother looked at my pitiful, dead plant; said nothing and put it outside.
Later that year, I went back for another visit. Lo and behold my “dead” plant had been brought back to life. I didn’t even recognize it. It was even more lush and full; and the leaves were a deeper shade of green. She had given it fresh soil, found the right spot in her menagerie of potted plants, and paid attention to it. Not a miracle, exactly. My mom just knew how to revive my plant, a plant that I had written off for dead. I remember standing there admiring the beautiful new life on the plant. When I think about that plant, I also think about all the things and places in my life where I was quick to declare something dead or hopeless.
As told in the Gospel of John, on that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene walked toward the tomb at dawn, not in hope, but in devotion. They came to tend to the dead. What they found instead was something completely different. The stone was rolled away. The grave was empty. And the risen Christ, mistaken at first for a gardener, called Mary by her name.
The resurrection of Jesus was a singular, unrepeatable event. And yet the pattern of resurrection, death giving way to life, endings becoming beginnings, hopelessness turns into hopefulness; all of this can be found in our lives today, because the God of Easter is also the God of everyday life.
The resurrection is the foundation of our faith, and it is not just about Jesus coming back after the crucifixion, but that the last word does not belong to the grave. The last word belongs to a God who can make all things new. Our God can bring life back to things that seemed hopeless and gone. This is the resurrection.
Perhaps the most personal experience of a resurrection that has happened to me has been my path to sobriety. Addiction hollowed me out as a person until I could no longer recognize myself. But the Easter story tells us that God is not deterred by tombs of any kind. The same voice that called Lazarus out by name called me out of my alcoholism and addiction. Every time I attend an AA meeting, I meet people who were certain they were spiritually or emotionally dead (and sometimes even physically dead), but now they have found themselves, much to their own astonishment, able to live again – a new resurrected life.
This Easter, I hope and pray that you will take a moment to survey your life and courageously point out the dead plants in your own life, whether they be old negative thoughts that can be revived into positive ones; or destructive habits that can be changed into healthy lifestyles. Bring them before the God of Easter. Not because resurrection is guaranteed to look the way we imagine, but because our God is a God who specializes in life where there was none. The stone is rolled away. The Gardener is still at work! New things are springing up, do you not perceive them? He is risen. He is risen indeed. Wishing you and yours a blessed and joyful Easter!
Blessings,
Rev. John
Later that year, I went back for another visit. Lo and behold my “dead” plant had been brought back to life. I didn’t even recognize it. It was even more lush and full; and the leaves were a deeper shade of green. She had given it fresh soil, found the right spot in her menagerie of potted plants, and paid attention to it. Not a miracle, exactly. My mom just knew how to revive my plant, a plant that I had written off for dead. I remember standing there admiring the beautiful new life on the plant. When I think about that plant, I also think about all the things and places in my life where I was quick to declare something dead or hopeless.
As told in the Gospel of John, on that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene walked toward the tomb at dawn, not in hope, but in devotion. They came to tend to the dead. What they found instead was something completely different. The stone was rolled away. The grave was empty. And the risen Christ, mistaken at first for a gardener, called Mary by her name.
The resurrection of Jesus was a singular, unrepeatable event. And yet the pattern of resurrection, death giving way to life, endings becoming beginnings, hopelessness turns into hopefulness; all of this can be found in our lives today, because the God of Easter is also the God of everyday life.
The resurrection is the foundation of our faith, and it is not just about Jesus coming back after the crucifixion, but that the last word does not belong to the grave. The last word belongs to a God who can make all things new. Our God can bring life back to things that seemed hopeless and gone. This is the resurrection.
Perhaps the most personal experience of a resurrection that has happened to me has been my path to sobriety. Addiction hollowed me out as a person until I could no longer recognize myself. But the Easter story tells us that God is not deterred by tombs of any kind. The same voice that called Lazarus out by name called me out of my alcoholism and addiction. Every time I attend an AA meeting, I meet people who were certain they were spiritually or emotionally dead (and sometimes even physically dead), but now they have found themselves, much to their own astonishment, able to live again – a new resurrected life.
This Easter, I hope and pray that you will take a moment to survey your life and courageously point out the dead plants in your own life, whether they be old negative thoughts that can be revived into positive ones; or destructive habits that can be changed into healthy lifestyles. Bring them before the God of Easter. Not because resurrection is guaranteed to look the way we imagine, but because our God is a God who specializes in life where there was none. The stone is rolled away. The Gardener is still at work! New things are springing up, do you not perceive them? He is risen. He is risen indeed. Wishing you and yours a blessed and joyful Easter!
Blessings,
Rev. John
Posted in Newsletter 2026-03-19