The Time of Singing Has Come
Song of Solomon 2:10–12

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away, for the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come.

C

lergy often don’t experience resurrection on Easter Sunday. They walk us through Holy Week and preach it on Sunday.  But it’s like a host setting a table but never getting a chance to eat the meal.

We started before sunup taking the kids to the sunrise service. Then back for the Easter egg hunt in our yard, then Drema off to preach two services.  Then back to the house for brunch with a large group of church members we came to call the “Brady Bunch.” Then, clean up.  It was like our wedding. David preached that morning after writing it the night before.  It’s a good thing neither of us use the love language of “quality time.”

So, we experienced the resurrection later. But that’s true for all of us, isn’t it?  We are all recalling the Resurrection 2,000 years later. What makes it real is not a memorial service.  It is the experience of a congregation living the Resurrection year-round by loving God and neighbor, then singing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” on Easter.

Recently, we went back to that church because our granddaughters were singing in the choir.  We saw many of those Easter people and remembered those who have died and where they sat.  And we saw their children.  And their children’s children in the choir. Like the resurrection hope of flowers appearing on the earth.  And the time of singing had come again.