Tag Archives: hope

Risus Paschalis: When Dust Laughs

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God will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.

Job 8:21
Risen! (photo by Jill Crainshaw)

risus paschalis: when dust laughs

spring has ambushed winter,
and the dust of the earth is, yet again,
transfigured into wind-dancing laughter.

laughing dust? not here
in this graveyard of abandoned joys
where dead-ended dreams whisper
like violated ghosts among tombs of those
too-soon returned to the earth.

you just smile and sink your spade
into the sun-warmed sod, costly
corruptions composted, turned, turned
again until soil recognizes soil.

then you wink, just once, and the
remembered dust, tantalized by the
tickle of a new feast’s first thin blade,
laughs.

I am intrigued by the varied liturgical traditions and customs that converge during Easter week each year.

Some Christian traditions call the week that begins with Easter Sunday “Bright Week.” During “Bright Week,” faith communities around the world celebrate the new light that dawned with Jesus’ resurrection. In this “Bright Week” tradition, each day of the week following Easter Sunday carries the adjective “bright.”

Easter Monday holds the additional distinction of being referred to by some as Risus Paschalis—Easter Laugh. Early orthodox communities began a tradition of gathering on the Monday following Resurrection Sunday to tell jokes as a way of marking Easter as the ultimate joke God played on Satan by defeating death with life. Some churches observe the Easter Laugh by including jokes or humorous anecdotes in their Easter Sunday sermons. Others emphasize laughter on the second Sunday of Easter, sometimes called Holy Humor or Hilarity Sunday.

Bright Week observances remind me. Life has defeated and will continue to defeat death. The promise is cosmic and infuses even the most mundane dimensions of human life. This is the power of the Easter message. Not a romanticized message. Not a triumphalistic one either. No, the power of the Easter message is its persistent hope and joy even amid uncertainty. And we have the opportunity to proclaim with our hands, feet, and hearts–with our dust-made humanity–life and hope for all people in the name of the one who made dust laugh again on Easter morning.

This Resurrection message of hope seems especially important for those in pursuit of a Master of Divinity degree. How often have people said to ministry students when they announce their decisions to undertake a divinity degree something like “are you sure you’ve thought this through?” or “are you joking?” When uncertainties arise as any of us pursue God’s call, or when everyday trials make us want to give up, or when the going gets tough and we are tempted to think the joke is on us, we can remember again the contagious, life-giving gift of the Easter laugh. Perhaps on this week’s Bright Monday we can join Sarah who all those years ago announced: “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6).

“Let us look expectantly to a new day”

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Autumn Magic

One thing have I asked of the Lord;

one thing I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life;

to behold the fair beauty of the Lord,

to seek God in the temple (from Psalm 27).

These words from Psalm 27 are the “opening sentences” for each day’s office of morning prayer in Celtic Daily Prayer. They offer wise counsel as we journey into the last third of the fall term.

So much has happened this semester. Some assignments have been completed and others are under way. Art of Ministry internships have brought gifts and challenges. Students in clinical pastoral education are visiting patients, presenting event accounts, and exploring theological and vocational identities with their supervisors. Faculty members are busy with teaching and writing, committee meetings, and community leadership. Staff persons are planning events and providing vital leadership and support.

And we have found ourselves this doing all of this during a pandemic, as a contentious election season draws to an end, and in the midst of ongoing individual and communal life challenges and difficulties.

So, a new week begins. We have a new President-elect and Vice President-elect. Students are meeting with advisers to plan for the spring semester. We have hope—and worries—about many life realities. I wonder. In the midst of the chaotic swirl of daily schedules and the stresses of academic deadlines and other life responsibilities, can we lean in and hear the Psalm 27 poet asking: What is the most important thing that you are asking of and seeking from God as you undertake this work of theological education? What is the source of your calling to ministry or to this educational journey? 

My fellow Wake Div-ers, please hear my gratitude for each of you. Your presence in our community and your ministry callings—the passions and dreams that led you to theological education and Wake Div–they matter, and they make a palpable and prophetic difference in the places where you live and work, laugh and lament. 

Another daily office, this one from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer, includes in its Night Prayer these words:

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done;

What has not been done has not been done.

Let it be.

The night heralds the dawn.

Let us look expectantly to a new day,

new joys, new possibilities.

In your name we pray. Amen.

Even as uncertain and wearying as much of 2020 has been, we can hold to the divine promise: Night follows day follows night as we move through the weeks of each semester of work and learning.

During this particular week of sunrises and sunsets, may we “let be” into God’s Spirit both what has been done so far and what has not yet been done even as, restless for communal transformation, we continue to undertake our shared mission to be agents of justice, reconciliation, and compassion in our communities.

Be sure to meet with your advisers this week and make plans to begin spring registration on Monday, November 16. Please reach out if you have questions as you consider your spring term or journey toward the end of this term.

To my amazing community, I offer blessings,

Jill Y. Crainshaw