Spirituality
www.SanTanSun.com
April 5 – 18, 2014
Spiritual Reflections When you believe in the promise of later BY LYNN HARTKE
could hardly bear the thought that I needed to catch a plane and she started round two of chemo the next day. “I love you,” we both said, and I prayed for at least a thousand more days to whisper the words. Before I entered the airport, I turned back and watched her get into her car. “I’ll see you later,” I said to the departing taillights. “I’ll see you later.” A casual way of parting. When the children were little, we’d say, “See you later, alligator.” It is a way of saying “goodbye” without uttering the word. “I’ll see you later” holds the promise of tomorrow. For me, Easter is not chocolate bunnies, egg hunts or family
Eight months ago while my parents were still alive, I hugged my dad in the entryway to the kitchen before heading to the airport. “I love you.” I wanted to shout it loud, but it became trapped somewhere in my throat where my heart had taken residence and it came out in a strangled whisper. “I’ll see you later.” I turned back, one more time, and watched my dad shuffle into the house to rest in one of his two favorite chairs. My dad was in too much pain to come say goodbye at the airport. A few hours later, I put my suitcase down, as I hugged my mom with both arms as she thanked me for coming. I
dinners—although we do all those things. Easter is the promise of endless tomorrows, a timelessness without pain, without cancer, without goodbyes, strangled words and swallowed back sobs in the airport bathroom. It is the promise of later. Because of Easter morning. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen!” Luke 24:5-6 NIV. Lynne Hartke blogs at www. lynnehartke.com. She is the wife of Pastor Kevin Hartke of Trinity Christian Fellowship, 50 S. McQueen Rd., Chandler. For more information, visit www. tcfchandler.org or call (480) 963-7698.
Spiritual Reflections Share your spiritual reflections... The spiritual leaders of SanTan Sunarea churches, temples, mosques and other religious and spiritual gathering places are invited to contribute their Spiritual Reflections in essay format by sending their thoughts, enlightening insights and other writings of a spiritual
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Spiritual Reflections are printed on a space-available basis, and submission does not guarantee print. The opinions represented in this column are those of the author and not that of the SanTan Sun News.
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Hope Covenant Church offers Easter service, egg hunt
Hope Covenant Church will hold a contemporary Easter service at Tumbleweed Park, 745 E. Germann Rd., Chandler, at 10 a.m. Sunday, April 20. An egg hunt for children of all ages and continental breakfast will precede the service at 9 a.m., and there will be a children’s program during the service. For more information visit, www. hopechurchchandler.com or call (480) 899-7255.
Easter Events at Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation
April 20
2nd Annual VUU Easter Pancake Breakfast
VUU Easter Sunday Service with Rev. Andy Burnette
8:30 to 9:45 a.m., Sun., April 20
10:30 a.m., Sun., April 20
Breakfast includes 2 pancakes, scrambled egg bake, 2 sausage links or fresh fruit and coffee or juice. Tickets: $5 in advance, $7 at the door. Tickets on sale Sun., April 6 & 13 and online at www.vuu.org Thank you for supporting our youth Coming of Age UU Heritage trip to Boston!
For many Unitarian Universalists, the Easter/ Passover season is a time of reflection of what has been, where one has come from, and the boundless potential for the days to come. For others, Easter offers the perfect time to celebrate the wonders of creation and the emerging of new life after the season of cold and its dormancy. Rev. Burnette will conduct infant dedications, a ceremony in which the congregation celebrates the joy of new life, during the service. There will also be the annual Easter Party for children with crafts, face painting and games during the service.
VUU Easter Egg Hunt 12:15 p.m. Sun., April 20 Bring an Easter basket for the Easter Egg Hunt immediately following the service, outside the sanctuary.
Other April activities: Maundy Theology on Tap with Rev. Andy Thursday 7 p.m., April 9, 16 and 23 7 p.m. Thu., April 17 Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation provides a welcoming diverse community that nurtures each person’s life-long spiritual journey, creates a place of peace and celebration and strives for social justice and sustainable living. Within this liberal religion, VUU members seek to create lives of integrity, service and joy.
Commemorate Last Supper; includes Communion; remembrance of those who have died; retelling of Passion Story.
Teakwood’s, 5965 W. Ray Rd., Chandler. Join the conversation over either alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks about radical 18th and 19th century Unitarian theology and its continuing effects. RSVP by emailing Rev. Andy Burnette at revandy@vuu.org with Theology on Tap in the subject line, and to get the sermons in advance.
480-899-4249 • www.vuu.org • 6400 W. Del Rio St. • Chandler
e. e. cummings, Poet; Charles Dickens, Author; Dorothea Dix, Teacher, Children’s Author, Mental Health Care Advocate; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Unitarian Minister, Lecturer, Essayist, Poet; Robert Fulghum, Unitarian Minister, Author; Edmund Halley, Astronomer
P. T. Barnum, Showman; Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross; Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Physicist, Inventor of the World Wide Web; Robert Burns, National Poet
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Author; Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, Author of U.S. Declaration of Independence; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet
Notable Unitarians: John Adams, President of the United States; John Quincy Adams, President of the United States; Louisa May Alcott, Abolitionist, Author of Little Women; Horatio Alger, Unitarian Minister, Author of Juvenile Fiction; Susan B. Anthony, Activist