May 6, 2021

Let’s hear from poet Mary Oliver.

“I think this is
the prettiest world—so long as you don’t mind
a little dying, how could there be a day in your whole life
that doesn’t have its splash of happiness?”

That’s from The Kingfisher. A little dying is baked into the bread of life, at least according to Jesus. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)

All the little resurrections that by the grace and power of God follow little d deaths in our lives prepare us for the Big Show that awaits us behind the veil.  The symbiosis between death and resurrection is how this world works, and the next one too.

“O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Sixth Sunday of Easter – BCP p. 225)