Happy Easter!
From Merry Christmas to Happy Easter!
An old song I like is Paul McCartney’s “On The Wings of a Nightingale” sung by the Everly Brothers. In the album that appears on YouTube from time to time, Don and Phil Everly, seemingly in their late teens or early twenties, are walking through a junk yard looking at old cars. Finally they stop right in front of The Ultimate Find: a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible. It looks like aitch but when they finish it’s the most gorgeous ride imaginable. All through the video they are singing “On The Wings of a Nightingale” and as the song ends they are happily taking the restored Chevy for a spin. I don’t know which I like better, McCartney’s song or the classic Chevy.
Yes I do, but that’s not my point this morning.
Two months ago, on Christmas Eve, Father Steve suggested I be the Celebrant at the main service, picking up at the Offertory, and I vested to do so. Unfortunately, that evening I was having such chest pains that I was popping a nitro-glycerine pill every few minutes! It came on again as the Offertory was being sung, and I was not able to preside at the Altar. I did take another pill and served a paten (photo above) but the pill wore off and the angina returned before the plate was empty!
A month after Christmas Eve I was refurbished like that ’57 Chevy -- a difference being that Don and Phil restored the entire car beautifully inside and out, while I have only been rebuilt mechanically -- I'm the same old Junk Yard Bubba on the outside. Another month has passed and in that happy +Time I am recovering on schedule, and so at Holy Nativity this morning we plan to resume where we left off Christmas Eve. For the first time since Christmas I will vest for both services, and at the eight o’clock service I am to pick up at the Offertory and be the Celebrant at the Altar. To me the hope-fulfilled and promise-come-true of this day and hour and life outshine even the Easter mornings as a child when we opened the front door to find magnificent Easter baskets on the front porch.
Immensely grateful to Father Steve for all that he is to us at Holy Nativity as our rector, and for all that he has been to me personally through this as my pastor, I look forward to being Home Again this morning!
And seeing that every Sunday is a celebration of The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God the Son, I wish you
Happy Easter!
Father Tom+