Lenten Meditation: April 5 2026
“May we have the faith and the joy to know on this day, that love has power even over death,” The Very Reverend Winnie Varghese, Dean
Hold on
Hold on
My dear ones, here comes the dawn
That song by Heidi Wilson was sung in the streets of Minneapolis in the first week of the ICE invasion of their city. In the freezing cold, all bundled up, some with signs, singing a promise in sweet harmonies.
Dear ones,
The tomb is empty, as Steven said the following Sunday.
Jim Wallis in his book God’s Politics tells this story set in the violent days of the anti-apartheid movement. A demonstration was cancelled by the police. In response Archbishop Desmond Tutu hosted the demonstration in St. George’s Cathedral. The Cathedral filled up, and then the police walked in, lining up against the walls, surrounding the people to intimidate them and maybe worse. The Arch declared --
“You are powerful. You are very powerful, but you are not gods, and I serve a God who cannot be mocked. So, since you’ve already lost, since you’ve already lost, I invite you today to come and join the winning side!
Wallis writes that the church erupted in song and dance.
Their dignity and freedom held up as the inevitable outcome of history. God’s ways already realized. A dawn on the horizon.
May we have the faith of the Archbishop and the joy of that congregation to know on this day, that love has power even over death. God’s justice will not be mocked, and the tender hope in those voices in Minneapolis, heralds our resurrection joy.
Also heard on the streets of Minneapolis.
For everyone that you detain
1000 come to break those chain
For everyone that you arrest
1000 more are coming next
And thousands and thousands and thousands.