Dorothy Sayers is known for her detective stories, but she also wrote a wonderful set of radio plays on the life of Christ, The Man Born to be King*

I reread parts of them this Holy Week. I was struck by her rendering of Herod Antipas, who sends Jesus back to Pilate, bored, and sighs:

“Heigh-ho! ….Why does nothing every happen of the slightest importance in this tedious and intolerable life?”

            Herod has just dismissed the Messiah of Israel, and seen his God incarnate before his face. He is utterly unaware that he is at the center point of history.   All he knew is that he was disappointed because his expectations of Jesus were not met, and Jesus would not do a miracle for his amusement.

            The joy of Easter is that the life that is in Jesus has burst into the universe and into our lives. When we are aware of that, there is no part of life that is mere tedium. Nothing we do is meaningless when we accept the grace of God and live with our eyes toward Christ. Whatever we do, when we do it aware of the implications of the Resurrection, it is charged with meaning. The smallest actions taken as part of the Body of Christ, the routine things:   dinner for the family, fixing a light bulb, balancing a checkbook, sweeping the porch, they are caught up into the symphony of Christ’s risen life. Paul said it well, when he prays that the Colossians may grown in the knowledge of God, “so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him as you bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of the Lord.” (Colossians 1:10) I hope you will stop from time to time in the joy of Easter week and think on how the Resurrection changes the significance of whatever it is you are doing.

*Available through Barnes and Noble or Amazon for $14.95 -I highly recommend it.

Canon Victoria Heardheard@redeemer-irving.org