Clergy from left, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired; Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Assistant Rector Lynn Finnegan and Pastor Deb Church. Courtesy photo
By Reverend Lynn Finnegan
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith
Santa Fe
In the 1996 movie Elmo Saves Christmas, Elmo of Sesame Street fame is given a magical snow globe that comes with three wishes (be patient, this is NOT an article about how many shopping days until Christmas!).
Elmo wishes for Christmas to occur EVERY day. He then is transported to the future to learn the adverse consequences of such a wish. By next year’s Christmas, everyone is tired of eating cookies, watching It’s A Wonderful Life, and buying gifts. Christmas trees are endangered and other holidays are overshadowed. Thankfully, Elmo is transported back to the present and chooses a stuffed toy instead of a snow globe for his gift.
What does this have to do with Lent you ask? Elmo Saves Christmas is a playful demonstration of why we Christians mark the season of Lent before we pull out all the stops with Easter lilies, frilly dresses, and the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Yes, in the year 2023 we believe that Jesus Christ has already been fully resurrected and ascended. But we also believe the joy of Easter is more perfectly celebrated if we travel the journey of Lent, marking it intentionally and setting it apart, as Pastor Deb Church recently wrote, “from the things that keep us living fractured and frantic and broken lives.”
In my tradition, we “bury the Alleluias” during Lent. From the first day of Lent until the first service of Easter, the “A word” isn’t uttered in our music or our prayers. I used to think this was artificial and performative. The rebel in me would whisper a few A words under my breath now and again. I mean Jesus HAS risen after all. But like Elmo, I was missing the point. The reality is we don’t live lives of constant Christmas OR Easter joy and to try to do so would be artificial and performative. Christmas trees AND Easter lilies would be endangered. “Burying the Alleluias” is a powerful auditory reminder we don’t believe in a God who magically appeared on Christmas morning and then magically rose from the dead on Easter morning. We believe in a God who joins us in our broken humanity in all the messy in between times, with all its heartache and confusion and disappointment and grief.
If you find yourself wandering into a church this Easter, April 9, I pray you will be welcomed warmly by chocolate-infused children, and with A words bouncing off the walls. But if you really want to experience the full glory of Easter, there’s still time to wander in the wilderness of Lent, by whatever means of intentionality – giving up, taking on, setting aside, or looking in – that works for you. You won’t journey alone.
Editor’s note: “All Shall Be Well” is a semi-monthly column written by local women clergy (pastors and deacons) including, ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com); Nicolé Ferry, Pastor, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (pastornicole@bethluth.com); Lynn Finnegan, Assistant Rector, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe (rev.lynn@holyfaithchurchsf.org) and Deb Church, Pastor, White Rock Presbyterian Church (pastor@wrpchurch.com).