Before we get to Easter, we need to linger:
in the vulnerability of the basin and the towel
at the remembrance and promise of the table
in the struggle and betrayal of the garden
in the shadows and shouts of injustice
at the bloody brutal beautiful cross
in the silence of linen and spices and death
For without these, the empty tomb is empty
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Poem: We Need to Linger © 2000 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please contact Lisa for information and permission to publish this work in any form.
Revlisad.com 
Your spiritual leadership is greatly appreciated. It is clear that, although unanticipated and undesired, you have been prepared for such a time as this. Gratefully, Stephen Hoffman
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Thank you for your kindness and encouragement.
Hello Rev. Lisa, I appreciate your resources very much. I would like to be able to reproduce your prayer above “Before we get to Easter..” in an online devotional I create/curate in Canada called Lutherans Connect, for tomorrow’s Maundy Thursday page. I can’t easily find an email address for you here, but would be grateful if you could reply to me at sherry.coman@gmail.com. If you would like to see this blog to understand its context, you can find it at: https://reimaginingjustice.blogspot.com/ . It started out as a Lenten project about climate justice and switched focus on Day 18 to the pandemic. Blessings and gratitude for your ministry! – Sherry