Wicker Park Lutheran Church
Vicar Sarah Freyermuth
April 4, 2026
The poem that most encapsulates the promise of Easter for me comes from Mary Oliver. She writes, “I have refused to live locked in the orderly house of reasons and proofs. The world I live in and believe in is wider than that. And anyway, what’s wrong with Maybe? You wouldn’t believe what once or twice I have seen. I’ll just tell you this: only if there are angels in your head will you ever, possibly, see one.”
Our Easter story starts in the orderly house of reasons and proofs. Mary Magdalene stands weeping outside the tomb because she knows the way the world works—it’s a world where empires have the final say, where violence wins, where death is absolute. We too, look at our world and think we know the same truths.
But thanks be to God that we have a God who is so much wider than that! Mary Oliver writes “You wouldn’t believe what once or twice I have seen.” The good news for us today is that we have seen proof of our God’s wideness so much more than once or twice. We have seen proof over and over again as God has brought new life out of death in creation, in a rainbow after the flood, in the parting of the Red Sea, in Jonah surviving the whale, in deliverance from the fiery furnace, in Jesus calling Mary to share the good news. All the incredible stories of faith we read today show us that resurrection is not simply a one-time event, it’s a way of life. All the incredible stories of faith we read today remind us that resurrection didn’t just happen 2000 years ago, it’s how God continues to operate in our world, here and now.
Today we are freed not to be locked into the orderly house of reasons and proofs but to see angels, to see possibility and resurrection all around us. In the baptismal waters, in the sharing of the meal, in our every act of justice and mercy and love—resurrection is still unfolding. Christ is risen, and our world is so much wider than we thought. Alleluia!