K Karpen: "A Strange Victory" (May 18, 2025)

"Those who find victory in love will inherit all things..." Revelation 21:7Easter Sunday, 1984 was my last Easter before coming here to St Paul & St Andrew. Pretending I had an hour of free time, I went next door to Riverside Church, where Bill Coffin was the pastor.I remember two things from Rev. Coffin's Easter sermon. First, he shared a ridiculous joke about moose hunting in Maine (I won't trouble you with that). But second, he referred to Easter not as one person's escape from the grave, but as "the victory of seemingly powerless love over loveless power." That is a line I will never forget.Easter is a victory, sure, but it's a strange victory. It's a victory not just over death, but over the ideology of death. It is a victory over all things that discount life and disparage love. A victory of seemingly powerless love over loveless power, indeed.See you Sunday,K