Easter Persists

Do you feel it too? The heaviness of these days. The weight of so many seemingly intractable challenges in our nation and world. The weariness of facing the daily barrage of bad news and  dispiriting circumstances.

We awoke to news on Sunday morning that peace talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Pakistan had failed to bring any meaningful agreements. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported the mounting human toll of this war.

1,701 civilians dead in Iran, including 254 children. 1,953 people killed in Lebanon and fully 1/5 of Lebanon’s entire population displaced. 20 people killed in Israel, 32 killed in other Gulf nations. 13 American service members dead and thousands more whose loved ones worry for their safety. A  humanitarian crisis throughout the Middle East that is widening every day. And economic pressures here in the United States that continue to deepen.

On Monday morning President Trump posted an AI image on X that was yet another frightening indicator of this dire moment. It depicted him clothed in white robes, apparently  bestowing healing on a prone man , a beam of light in his hand and an American flag at his back. White faces look up at him in adoration, and military planes fly overhead. It was white Christian nationalism on full display, a revolting attempt to characterize this President as some kind of Christ-like, salvific figure. The pure definition of blasphemy.

All of this while Eastertide lingers, inviting us to trust that God can wrestle new life from the very worst day, can carve the possible out of what seems utterly impossible. It’s hard to hold onto these Easter promises, though, when this is the current state of things.  It can feel instead like we’re stuck in the cruelty and violence of Good Friday, gripped by the overwhelming uncertainty and grief that Jesus’ followers experienced on that Holy Saturday.

And yet. Easter did come. Christ rose. Death was vanquished. The love and goodness and presence of God could not be snuffed out by all the madness of the world or the corrupt powers of the day. Then —and now— new life beckons. Hope persists. Easter cannot be shut out or shut down. We believe.

The Reverend Shari Prestemon began her service with the national ministries of the United Church of Christ in January 2024 and was formally elected as Associate General Minister by General Synod in 2025. As the Associate General Minister & Co-Executive for Global Ministries she has the privilege of overseeing several teams: Global Ministries, Global H.O.P.E., Public Policy & Advocacy Team (Washington, D.C.), and our staff representative to the United Nations. She previously served as pastor to local UCC congregations in Illinois and Wisconsin; the Executive Director at the UCC’s Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi; and as Conference Minister in Minnesota.