Calla Lilies, Dogwoods and Hot Cross Buns

Living in Reno, I am missing the calla lilies and dogwoods in Bonny Doon.  The tulips we planted in pots have started to grow but it will be sometime before they bloom.  It is still snowing here on the Eastern slope of the Sierras.   Since I didn’t have children, our holidays have typically been a menagerie of experiences based on different family traditions with a few of my own thrown into the mix.   The traditions that I’d made my own over the years were calla lilies, dogwoods and hot cross buns.  However one of the awesome bonuses of living in Reno is the opportunity to participate in the Good Friday experience offered at Grace Church in Reno.  Perhaps this will be my new tradition.

Easter Memories

My Easter memories have spanned several locations in California and as far away as Colorado.

Easter in Paradise 

I first grew to love calla lilies and dogwoods from memories of my Grandmother's garden in Paradise, California.  The row of calla lilies behind Grandma's house and the dogwood tree in her front yard were both a harbinger of Easter.   It was always a special joy to pick flowers to take to church on Sunday.  For Easter, we'd make a point to bring the calla lilies, if they were in bloom.  Grandma often would let me pick them and take them home too.  Our yard in Bonny Doon always reminded me of Grandma's garden.  There were already calla lilies and lilacs growing there. We planted dogwoods and hydrangeas around the perimeter of the yard.

I'm not sure why, but other than dyeing Easter eggs, I have very few memories of Easter outside of celebrations at Grandma's house.  Sundays at Grandma's were always a celebration as we dressed up for church and looked forward to Sunday supper after church at Grandmother's with our extended family living in the area. Grandma and Grandpa were raising one of our cousins who's mother had died.    Somehow our Easter supper after church was always more special, perhaps because because family members made a special effort to be there.

I recall one year when I was relatively young being distraught that I didn't have an Easter dress.  Grandpa went out and found a white sailor dress for me that year.

Grandma cleaned house for a woman in town who would buy our cousin, that our grandparents were raising, a giant solid chocolate bunny from JoyLynn's chocolate store.

As a kid growing up, I recall the Easter story of Jesus dying on the cross and being resurrected on Easter Sunday, but all the gruesome parts of what a crucifixion really was were left out.  It wasn't until in my college years Grandma urged us to attend a play at a church in Magalia, above Paradise where she lived, that I started to become slightly more aware of the of the horrible torture Christ endured before being lead to the cross and while on it.  

Easter in Bonny Doon

In growing up, when my friends began having children, I began hosting Easter egg hunt complete with honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and fresh carrots for the Easter bunny.  Our friends took turns dressing up as an Easter bunny until the kids began guessing who was dressed up in the bunny suit and harassing the bunny.

It wasn't until I began attending the women's Bible study in Bonny Doon that I became acquainted with the delightful taste of Hot Cross Buns and learned the symbolic meaning them and of a dogwood tree.   As a kid, we'd read and sun the Mother Goose nursery rhyme.   

Hot-cross Buns!
    Hot-cross Buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
    Hot-cross Buns!

    Hot-cross Buns!
    Hot-cross Buns!

I hadn't known the cross on the buns was symbolic of Christ dying on the cross.  

According to the legend, it was the dogwood tree that provided the wood used to build the cross on which Jesus was crucified.  Because of its role in the crucifixion, it is said that God both cursed and blessed the tree.  Others say the four petals of a dogwood flower are said to form a cross. Some varieties of dogwood flowers have red marks around the bracts' indents, which represent the blood of Jesus Christ. The tight grouping of flowers in the center of the dogwood flower symbolize the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus's head during the crucifixion.

Easter in Colorado

Some of my most favorite Easters over the past 10 years or so were in Colorado visiting family on the Western Slope.  Most of the time we’d dye Easter Eggs with my sister’s grandkids and my sister and I would often attend Easter Sunrise service together.  One memorable year, I had the opportunity to attend Cowboy Church with one of my nieces. It was held in a metal building, we sat on straw bales for pews and the worship team sang a song that spoke to me.  The song, Oceans, was sung by a teenager girl with a stunning voice.  I would later learn to sing this song and sing it at my church in Bonny Doon.

Easter in San Diego

Easter in San Diego has always meant attending church with my mother-in-law.  For years, she has been part of a new church planting of Faith Community Church, which involved meeting in temporary locations until the church was able to raise sufficient funds to build their own church building. One memorable year they held Easter service at the iconic Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch.  Eventually, they would buy property in San Marcos, where they have completed the first level of their yielding and are now meeting.

Good Friday

It wasn’t until the past ten years or so that I started becoming aware of Good Friday and asking what it represented.  Why would anyone call the day Christ died on the cross good?    We call this day good because it’s good news for you and I.

Grace Church used the Catholic stations of the cross as inspiration for the Good Friday experience.  For me the confession, prayer wall and communion were the most moving.  For confession, the had individuals write their confessions on a piece of thin paper then take the paper to a pastor with a bottle of water and a bowl.  The pastor would share Christ’s promise of forgiveness and pour water over your hands as you rubbed the tissue like paper between your hands and watched it dissolve.  From there, I wrote my prayer on a piece of paper and tucked it into the crevices of the chicken wire prayer wall evocative of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.  Lastly, I walked into the sanctuary where there was a reenactment of the Last Supper were I was able to take communion. 

There were a couple opportunities to reflect on the severity of Christs sacrifice for us on the cross. There were crosses people could hammer nails, the device used to beat Jesus on display and an opportunity to form a small cross with twigs.  Although evocative of what Christ suffered, they do not come close to demonstrating the reality of what he endured for our sake, for my sake.  The closest I’ve come to experiencing what Christ suffered would be to watch the movie, The Passion of the Christ; however I would fast forward through the hard parts.   I wince watching someone pull a band-aide off a friend and cover my ears and eyes at violent movies.  What’s even worse about considering the suffering of Christ is that he was innocent and he took the penalty for my mistakes, for our mistakes. 

It's always hard to "face the music" so to speak for things we've done wrong.  We justify why we do what we do.   No matter what our justifications, for our decisions to do wrong things, we've done them. The stark reality is that Christ took on the punishment for my mistakes and wrong doings, for your mistakes and wrong doings. He did this not so that we'd feel guilty for his suffering, but so that we might be set free from the consequences of our mistakes.

If you haven't done so already, I hope that today as you read this blog post that you will reach out and accept the gift of forgiveness Christ has made possible through his sacrifice on the cross.  

If you have already accepted Christ, is there anyone in your life that Christ might be calling you to forgive?   Will you forgive them today as Christ has forgiven you?