Easter Sunday found me nothing short of verklempt. This word which means ‘filled to overflowing with emotion’ is the only way I can describe my experience. If there is a word that means completely surprised and verklempt that would be the truest description.

It happened at our Sunrise service held in the large, glass walled entrance to the church. It was a glorious morning. The sun was already shining…we are not the purists that need to hold their sunrise service when the sun is actually rising. 7:00 a.m. is early enough! The sun was shining, it was chilly outside but warm inside with the sun’s rays and the warmth of people gathering as they wore not only their Easter clothes but their Easter faces. Lent was over. Bring out the smiles, seemed to be the feeling in the room. As we joined our voices in song, the music surrounding us and lifting our voices even higher, made it truly felt like a celebration of a new day, a new time, a new hope.

When it came time to read the scripture lesson for the day, I moved into the center of the people and began to read words I have read more times than I can remember. Indeed, they are words that I have also heard read more times than I care to remember. I began to once again tell the story of Mary Magdalene heading to the tomb where Jesus had been laid. The words were equally familiar to the majority of those who listened. Because it was Easter and early in the morning, people weren’t as glazed over as they sometimes can be when a familiar text comes their way. People genuinely seemed to be engaged in the story. It was, after all, the story they came to hear.

Right smack in the middle of the telling, after finding the tomb empty, come these words spoken of Mary Magdalene’s encounter with two angels: ‘They said to her ” Woman, why are you weeping?” And she answers: “They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid him.”

That’s when it happened. I felt this familiar churning deep in my stomach, the place where emotion gets buried and comes to meet you when you least expect it. It was coming to meet me in the middle of a worship service! Reading scripture! Gathering myself together I finished the reading and turned the next part of the service over to my calmer, more clear headed colleague to bring the message of the morning. As I sat down, I made myself be present to the rest of the service and placed reflection on what had happened to me for a later time. After the service a couple of those who know me well commented on the emotion they saw me experience. Where had it come from, we wondered?

Yesterday as I took some time to rest up after a full and powerful weekend, I thought back to the reading of that familiar story. I could have spent time dissecting the reasons for the emotion that came from deep inside a familiar story, from deep inside my body. Perhaps I was associating the story with our dear one whose funeral I had conducted the day before. Perhaps my emotions had been stirred up by the song sung directly before the scripture:” All my favorite people are broken….believe me….my heart should know.” Perhaps I had some fatigue within me that I had not given proper attention to. Perhaps, my mind thought, I was connecting with all the many ways we continue to look for resurrection without having the eyes to see it or encounter it.

But instead of settling on any of these possibilities, I convinced myself to be content with allowing the experience to be what it was. An encounter with an ancient story that still has the power to be living Word.

It seemed enough and maybe even the point.