An Easter Message from Bishop Logue
Easter 2024
The Rt. Rev. Frank S. Logue
Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
One April morning while hiking on the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee, Victoria and I endured hypothermic conditions in an unexpected snowstorm. It had been raining when we ducked into an old barn that served as a trail shelter. During the night, the temperature dropped. Pelting rain turned to heavy snow with the official snowfall count at 13 inches.
We hunkered down in our sleeping bags all day hoping for better weather in the morning. We were not properly geared up for a winter backcountry trip as we had packed to hike the whole AT in a single hike. The next day brought more wind and cold. Victoria and I left the sheltered confines of the barn as the wind drove through our insufficient layers of clothes.
Finding our way was a serious issue. The Appalachian Trail is marked by an unbroken chain of two-inch by six-inch white paint marks which are the common thread that holds together the 2,150-mile path from Georgia to Maine. This system of paint marks is the perfect solution to marking a trail until you are thigh deep in snow and every tree is powder coated with snow blown by wind. The gusts that day were reported to exceed 35 miles per hour.
This was the most difficult time we faced in terms of making sure we were on the path, but it was far from the only time. What you do when you realize you have lost your way is to find the last clear white paint blaze and look for signs of where to go next.
The Gospels record many of the incidents when Jesus’ first followers came to see that their Rabbi was not just a great teacher, but truly the Messiah, the Son of God. But the whole trajectory of the Jesus Movement as they understood it up until then, came grinding to a halt when one of their own betrayed their teacher. Most everyone scattered into the night. The next day, the unimaginable happened. The one they knew to be God made man was put to death on a cross. And so, in the face of their own pain and fear, they went back to the last white paint blaze. They gathered back in the Upper Room where the previous night’s Passover must have seemed so long ago.
The resurrected Jesus would, of course, reveal himself to them all, even rounding up the lost sheep, like Thomas, who missed his first appearance in the Upper Room. In the years that followed, they followed the way of Jesus in the face of persecution and even death. And when they were uncertain, or afraid, they could always return to the places they had last seen God show up as confirmation that they remained on The Way of Jesus.
That bitter cold April morning on the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee, Victoria and I set out unsure of how the hike would go with the markers covered in snow. The oddest thing happened. A hunting dog that had clearly been waiting out the storm in the shelter below us now proceeded to lead us as if it were our pet out for a hike, running up ahead and then coming back to us. The hunting dog was adept at working its way around and over the drifted snow. The snow was usually calf deep, with occasional drifts that were thigh deep for me and hip deep for Victoria, when it was at its worst.
As we hiked in the bone-numbing cold of a driving wind, we came to see that the dog unerringly knew the path as from time to time we did find another white paint blaze. While crossing over a grass-topped mountain, the dog cut down hard to the left off the mountain while the well-worn trail, though covered in snow, clearly continued straight ahead. We trusted that the dog knew the way, so we descended steeply from the ridge into ever-deepening snow. At the tree line, we saw it. A white paint blaze showed through the mostly snow-blasted bark on a tree. That odd encounter with a dog became not a coincidence, but a God-incident, in which we saw we should remain on the Appalachian Trail to the end.
These God moments are meaningful, but they are not ever present. Each day or even every week will not give you an incontrovertible sign of God’s presence. When I hit a time where I want God to show up but fail to feel the Spirit’s presence, I look back on recent occasions when I have seen the Holy Spirit showing off and I know I remain on the right path. I trust that if I venture in the wrong direction, that God will reveal that as well.
How did God last show up in your life? Look for the signs of God’s presence in the weeks to come. Treasure the times in which God has been real for you as the risen Jesus is with you during this season of Easter, through the times when you don’t feel it and in the moments when you do. God’s presence and power are with you always, even to the end of the age.
May the Lord bless you and keep you; make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace. Amen.
+Frank
The Rt. Rev. Frank S. Logue
Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
Easter 2024