1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. … 8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.
-Psalm 34:1-8, NRSV
To me, the resurrection tastes like box-mix pancakes.
In the church where I grew up, Easter sunrise service was always followed by pancakes. My dad and Mr. Blakeslee (the man who sat in the pew in front of us, who still sits in the pew in front of my parents) would spend the service back in the church kitchen, surrounded by more pancake griddles than the church’s electrical wiring could reasonably handle, whipping up pancakes and sausage links.
The pancakes didn’t taste like the ones we made at home. At home, we usually made pancakes from scratch. It was our Sunday morning ritual, and I liked that ritual. I liked the old batter stains on the well-worn pancake page of my mom’s Betty Crocker cookbook. I liked the measuring, the mixing, the transformation of eggs and flour and oil into delicious, buttery, syrupy pancakes. I liked our constant family debate about how much baking powder to use. I liked the ritual of pancakes from scratch as much as I liked the taste.
But on Easter Sunday, making pancakes from scratch for the whole church wasn’t quite feasible, so we used boxed pancake mix. Those box-mix pancakes tasted different — not better or worse, just different — and to this day, that difference tastes like Easter. It tastes like resurrection. It tastes like new life.
In this season of covid-tide — a season that is, for so many of us, marked by loss or death — we can find comfort in the truth that death doesn’t have the last word. We can find hope in the things — the sights, the smells, even the tastes — that remind us of new life. We can find peace in the knowledge that our God is a God of new life, renewed life, abundant life.
And if it takes a batch of pancakes to remind us of that, then so be it.
Blessings,
Pastor Candy
And don’t forget to join us for our “Rally in the Gallery” — a virtual Rally Day pancake breakfast — on Saturday October 17 at 10:00 AM. Click on the link to RSVP (and to reserve your jar of pancake mix, if you like!). It’ll be a great way to connect with your church family… and you may just find those pancakes taste like resurrection.
RSVP here: https://forms.gle/gTbiVqtmfj2FJs7o7
Cling to the things that remind you of new life, friends, and remember:
Our God is bigger than coronavirus.
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too.
We are people blessing people.
We are Wesley Church.
Want to know more?
- Learn about our church and its ministries: https://wesleychurch.com/
- Make a gift to support our mission: https://wesleychurch.com/giving-2/
- View our recent messages: https://wesleychurch.com/sermon-message-on-video/
- View previous devotionals: https://wesleychurch.com/pastor-candys-devotionals-2/
