Greeting Holy People of God,
for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
Every Easter season we contemplate Jesus’ resurrection. We hear the familiar stories of how Jesus was unrecognizable to Mary Magdelene until Jesus called her by name. We hear how two disciples walked 7 miles with Jesus and didn’t know it was him until they broke bread together. Then they knew it was Jesus and they were filled with great joy.
Our lives are hidden with Christ. So how very appropriate for the Secret Sibling Reveal to happen in the Easter season. On Sunday, April 12 the Formation Co-op Team called together the 23 youth and adults that participated as secret siblings for 6 weeks in the season of Lent.
Each week they share a bit of themselves and their faith, secretly getting to know one another. They shared a favorite bible passage, bible story and song. They shared something that fit in an egg and something about what they gave up or took on for Lent. They shared their experience with God. All these secret sharings provided an opportunity for them to get to know one another.
After we shared a wonderful potato bar with salads and desserts, the time for revealing came. Numbers were drawn and last gifts were shared. Each person was allowed to guess who had their name. Some had no clue. Some had a couple of ideas of who it might be. It was a joy to see the secrets revealed. It was a time of sharing stories. We learned how stealthy siblings were as they changed their handwriting or as they were careful not to share too much fearing they would reveal their identity. Some siblings watched the table closely to see if they could catch the person delivering their gift.
As you can see here, Joel gave his last gift to his secret sibling, Aaron. It was a box of mac and cheese. It sounded like a box of mac n’ cheese. But upon closer inspection, hidden inside was one of Aaron’s favorite candies, Mike and Ike’s. Isn’t that how resurrection functions in our lives. Our lives are hidden in Christ. We continue to look, to share, to explore together and we discover Christ is with us in the most unexpected and sometimes hidden ways!
After all was revealed, we took sometime to evaluate our experiment. Everyone was willing to participate again and recommend it to another. Lent was a good time to do this. Siblings got to know each other better in a safe environment. They could be vulnerable with one another in a non-threatening way. They had to be creative and reflect on what they wanted to share. They asked themselves what their favorite bible verse or story was and if it was still the same as it had been when they were younger. It was fun! It helped them to think of the other and not just themselves.
Not surprising, communicating and sharing the information of the weekly topics and knowing who their secret sibling was sooner could be improved upon. That also holds true when we reflect on our relationship with Christ too. As they said on the road to Emmaus, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)
I hope you will have conversations about resurrection and about how your lives are hidden with Christ!
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
