As a priest, Easter in a pandemic was bitter-sweet. Sweet because it is the apex of our faith – but bitter because the church would be empty. Leonard Cohen’s poem-song soothed this ache with the following line:

 “I walked into this empty church, I had no place else to go
When the sweetest voice I ever heard whispered to my soul”

 Thus, I was inspired to reflect on the Resurrection through the Easter consciousness of Cohen’s poem: “There ain’t no cure for love.”

I loved you for a long, long time
I know this love is real
It don't matter how it all went wrong
That don't change the way I feel
And I can't believe that time is
Gonna heal this wound I'm speaking of

There ain't no cure, there ain't no cure, there ain't no cure for love

 

I'm aching for you baby
I can't pretend I'm not
I need to see you naked
In your body and your thought
I've got you like a habit
And I'll never get enough

There ain't no cure, there ain't no cure, there ain't no cure for love

 

All the rocket ships are climbing through the sky
The holy books are open wide
The doctors working day and night
But they'll never ever find that cure for love

(There ain't no drink, no drug) ah, tell them, angels
(There's nothing pure enough to be a cure for love)

 

I see you in the subway and I see you on the bus
I see you lying down with me, I see you waking up
I see your hand, I see your hair
Your bracelets and your brush
And I call to you, I call to you
But I don't call soft enough

There ain't no cure, there ain't no cure, there ain't no cure for love

 

I walked into this empty church, I had no place else to go
When the sweetest voice I ever heard whispered to my soul
I don't need to be forgiven for loving you so much
It's written in the scriptures
It's written there in blood
And I even heard the angels declare it from above

There ain't no cure, there ain't no cure, there ain't no cure for love

 

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb” (Matthew 28v1)

Cohen’s first verse describes the heart ache of the two Mary’s as they walk to the tomb:

“I loved you for a long, long time
I know this love is real
It don't matter how it all went wrong
That don't change the way I feel
And I can't believe that time is
Gonna heal this wound I'm speaking of”

Jesus died because there ain’t no cure for love. Jesus could not stop loving and so he was crucified for this love. Why do Mary and Mary go to tomb despite the danger from Roman and Jewish authorities? Because there ain’t no cure for love – they can’t help but love Jesus. Why did the Resurrection happen? Because love cannot be killed. Love goes on. If Love is crucified, then Love is transformed and Resurrected…Love goes on loving.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place here he lay. (Matthew 28v5-6)

Perfect love casts our fear. There ain’t no cure for love but love is the cure for fear. Twice Mary and Mary are told “Do no be afraid.” Like the two Mary’s, Leonard Cohen also hears the angel:

“I walked into this empty church; I had no place else to go. When the sweetest voice I ever heard whispered to my soul. I don't need to be forgiven for loving you so much. It's written in the scriptures. It's written there in blood. And I even heard the angels declare it from above.”

The first witnesses to the Resurrection were told twice: “Do not fear.”

Do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid of the Powers.

Do not be afraid of Rome, the chief priests and the soldiers.

Do not be afraid of death.

Do not be afraid of life.

Do not be afraid of being afraid.

As people who live the Resurrection, this is your message too: do not be afraid.

This Easter, there is much to be afraid of:

o   COVID

o   violent weather patterns bringing first fire then flood,

o   war,

o   poverty

o   and more disease.

In the context of our church life there is much to be afraid of:

·      the failure of the church’s mission in a post Christian world,

·      the indifference of our secular society,

·      the closure of churches and

·      the jaded fatigue of the faithful.

The Scriptures tell us do not fear.

Do not be afraid of what God might want to do in our lives and communities and in the life and community of the church.

Do not be afraid when new things, unthinkable things for some, begin to be suggested, promulgated, and made standard practice in church:

·         a more flexible approach to Scripture,

·         the consecration of women bishops,

·         a new attitude to sexual minorities,

·         the suggestion that things that have been considered mortally sinful for centuries, may not be sinful at all,

·         and things that have been considered standard practice might be deeply evil.

 This text from Matthew urges us repeatedly do not be afraid.”

The Easter account offers one final shock:

 

“Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (Matthew 28.9-10)

 

Why does Jesus ask them to return to Galilee? In Matthew 4:15-16 (quoting from Isaiah 9:1-2) Galilee is called "Galilee of the Gentiles." The disciples are told to Galilee because Galilee is the Gateway of the Gentile world. In other words, ALL people and ALL nations are included in the Love Story of Easter. God’s Resurrected Cosmic Presence is available to ALL. ALL are ONE in God, in LOVE.

 

Likewise, Cohen realises that his love for his partner and his love for God is one and the same thing. This is resurrected awareness.

“I don't need to be forgiven for loving you so much. It's written in the scriptures. It's written there in blood. And I even heard the angels declare it from above.”

 

Resurrected awareness recognises that there is only love. Love disintegrates boundaries and separation. There is no difference between the love for God and love for one another. In every moment of loving another: a lover, a child, a pet, an aspect of nature, we are at that moment loving God and more importantly God is loving through us and loving through us.

The Easter Love story means this:

In the gaze of love, you and I meet, and we are one.

I find you there.

And you find me there.

In the gaze of love, in the gaze of the cosmic Christ we meet.

And in this gaze of love none are damaged.

 None are excluded.

All are embraced.

The resurrected Christ fills every atom, every galaxy, every quark, every vast ocean with abundant love. Thus, all space is sacred, all people are sacred.

The gaze of love does not hide in chosen sites or chosen believers. It breaks open and dawns on all with equal grace.

And the fact that we find each other at all .

The fact that we continue to love and be loved, is the greatest of proofs of God’s resurrection and God’s insistent persistent existence.