Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
I am grateful for the opportunity to once again rejoice in the risen Christ! Easter is here! And with it comes the joy we associate with it through spring weather and thoughts of renewal.
The Easter season, like the season of Christmas, is timed for the Northern Hemisphere. Christmas, originally set to the winter solstice, was about hope in the darkest of times. And culminates with Epiphany, right about the time people would recognize the sun rising earlier in the morning.
Easter is similarly timed. So we can witness to resurrections in the world around us. God raises the dead to life; and we get to see it in the birds nesting, trees budding, and flowers blooming.
This also matches our own behavior inside the church. As we welcome new members and restore those who have been separated from the faithful.
I suspect that the biggest challenge we have as people of faith is how set we are on things always being final. From decisions and traditions to the structures themselves. When it comes to Jesus, we’re all about death and resurrection. But when it comes to buildings and institutions, everything about us screams “afraid of dying.”
Easter, and the very world around us, screams the opposite. God brings things to life! And so we are being called into God’s holy work of renewal.
With love,
Drew