Easter Message: Kneading, Weaving, Praying with Hope
Dear Beloved of El Camino Real,
As you may know, I spent the first month of my sabbatical learning about textiles in the Rio Grande area of the Southwest. My particular focus was on weaving.
As often happens when working toward a planned outcome, the lessons learned are richer than expected. I wove a rug; what I learned about was prayer: heartfelt prayer woven into the yarn of the warp and weft, creating something new.
Holy Week is a story of the worst of humanity. Scriptures speak of betrayal, denial, abuse, and violence. Underneath and outside the frame of that story, another narrative of prayer and quiet witness unfolds. This is the story of Holy Week that is untold — the story of those who baked bread, wove cloth, and prepared oils during those same days. Into the kneading, the weaving, the preparation were prayers, often wordless, to God for the world, the nation, the people, the human being who was abused. The bread was consumed, the cloth worn, the body cared for, and the heartfelt prayers continued as they always have, woven into the fabric of daily life.
The untold story of prayer and quiet witness is what bursts forth from the tomb and changes the primary narrative from death and darkness to life and hope. The women, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Joanna, bore witness as their prayers became the ongoing Christian story of the hope of resurrection and the Glory of God.
These prayers have changed the world throughout the cycles of history. Even as wars rage and people are displaced, while violence, death, and destruction dominate the news and public discourse is chaotic, there remains a quieter reality: people are still working for peace, hope continues to grow, and acts of kindness go on. These actions are not naive, nor are they denial. They are a steadfast hope for a world where God’s love and God’s creation thrive, tended by ordinary hands, one act at a time.
At our clergy conference in March, I showed my weaving to our deacons and priests. When I told them about it, someone said, “We are in that weaving.” Yes.
We are intertwined in each other’s lives: through hope and joy, through pain and grief, and through our ongoing prayers for the world we long for. Every day, the threads of our prayers, woven together, reveal a world where the Risen Christ shines brightly and brings hope.
Please pray with me:
O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the
glory of the Lord’s resurrection: Stir up in your Church that
Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we,
being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in
sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever. Amen.
Faithfully,
