Easter - A New Day, A New Motif
- Pastor Russell Willis
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
meditation on Easter Sunday
Psalm 118: 1-2; 14-24; Acts 10: 34-43; 1 Corinthians 15: 19-26; John 20: 1-18; Luke 24: 1-12
Easter Sunrise
This New Day
Quiet
Dark
Nothing moves
Stars slowly wink out
One, then another as
Sky tints
Bird song greets
The light
A new day
A new day!
A new age to be filled with new living
Greet the day with a heart song
Greet this new day!
Greet this new day, the dead of night is over!
An Easter Villanelle*
They had found the stone was rolled away
And started looking for the thief
At dawn it was, on the third day
Why are you weeping this way?
Their only answer was of grief
They had found the stone was rolled away
But gentle words accompanied the light of day
Words that mocked their unbelief
At dawn it was, on the third day
Look not in this place of death and decay
Look to life and not to grief
They had found the stone was rolled away
Then swept by the memory now on display
His promise that death would find relief
At dawn it was, on the third day
Alleluia! Death has no sway!
A grace we find, a new motif!
They had found the stone was rolled away
At dawn it was, on the third day
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A grace we find, a new motif!
A motif is a decorative design or pattern, often related to art, especially music, and literature. This term is fitting for the final stanza of this year's Easter Sunday poem because Easter, the event of Christ's resurrection, brings forth a new design in creation, establishing a new pattern of existence for humanity.
Death no longer means the end of life. Life is now imagined as eternal, an extension of our created being into our being in grace.
A new day dawned that morning, literally and cosmically.
Because of Easter, we, as followers of Christ, are now invited to embrace this new pattern. We are encouraged to design our lives according to this new design of living.
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*A villanelle is a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas.
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