This Must Be Amazing Grace

  This is a day of new beginnings, /  Time to remember and move on, /  Time to believe what love is bringing, /  Laying to rest the pain that’s gone. ( United Methodist Hymnal  #283 ) Despite temperatures of 30-something and only the flowers on the altar speaking Spring, not much was unexpected for Easter worship 2022 at Epworth United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.   Keyboardist Seth Engleby gracing us with his always awesome prelude, Pastor Elizabeth Macaulay showing the radical hospitality that comes as natural to her as breathing, the choir gracefully dancing and singing and signing us into worship, Nan Rice’s children’s lesson on the miracle of the caterpillar’s transformation -- enclosing itself in a chrysalis before becoming a butterfly, liturgist Jon Fors reminding us of Christ’s command: “Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both” (1 John 4:21, The Message ). All of this so full of wonder and grace but still not unexpecte...