Random thoughts in a post-Easter world
We have sung our joyful songs, we have praised God for the great victory in Christ, we have marveled the tapestry of conundrums — how Christ’s victory was won through the most abject human suffering, how death (Christ’s) defeated death (Satan), how one of the cruelest mechanisms of human atrocity (the cross) was the instrument by which our salvation was secured, how God’s great loss (his beloved Son) was our priceless gain.
It is all so nonsensical that no human mind could have invented this story. It could only have come from God’s heart!
We have crossed the threshold. We are on the other side of history’s greatest miracle. Now what? Kick back, enjoy spring and look ahead to summer? Or….
We remember. We remember those in our lives whose came before, whose faithful witness filled our days and who now sing with the angels. We remember our own ancestors — parents, grandparents, teachers, mentors whose example of faithful living, and commitment to those who have less, always inspired us to do more.
We remember God’s chosen ones and their very human story that is so much like our own as we continue to turn away from God, become angry because we feel abandoned, and then finally realize it is we who have strayed because God always remains faithful. We remember the story of God’s people, for it is our own.
WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE ATTENDED. HOW DID JESUS SURVIVE HIS 40 DAYS IN THE WILDERNESS WITH NO FOOD? “HE WAS IN THE WILDERNESS FORTY DAYS, BEING TEMPTED BY SATAN.
HE WAS WITH THE WILD ANIMALS, AND ANGELS ATTENDED HIM” (MARK 1 >> 12, NIV). These were fiercely strong angels. They had to be, to counteract the attacks on Jesus by Satan and his army of angels.
What army, you say? Breaking news: Revelation 12:9 announces that after being defeated by the archangel Michael, “the deceiver of the whole world…was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” I am willing to bet that since then they have found a way to greatly multiply, because there seem to be more than enough for all of us. When you feel these demons circling around, poking you with their little pitchforks to get your attention, don’t waste a moment: Call for help. “Be pleased, O Lord to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!” (Psalm 70:1)
STRIVE TO BE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORLD. “WE DO NOT LIVE TO OURSELVES, AND WE DO NOT DIE TO OURSELVES. IF WE LIVE, WE LIVE TO THE LORD…” (ROMANS 14 >> 7-8a). God’s concern is for all people. Faith is not a purely individual matter. Yes, we all need time in prayer to focus our minds and hearts on God. Yes, we pray to God to increase our faith. But the purpose of our faith is to witness to the world concerning Christ’s victory and the life we have through him.
That witness consists of seeing clearly what forces humanity is contending with and proclaiming, just as Jesus did, that the old systems of power and privilege are dead ends. Power brokers may still persevere but only at their peril, because death — the abyss, the pit — inevitably awaits and sooner or later they tumble in. We commit to standing with all who are oppressed by these systems in the conviction that love and not hate, compassion and not cruelty, are the banners under which we live as disciples of Christ.
Keep on telling the story. The three alarmed women who we heard about in Mark at the empty tomb did go on to tell others what they saw, because we too know the rest of the story. Easter Sunday is over, but our joyful work is not. Do you really “love to tell the story?” Then spend the rest of the Easter season doing just that in acts of love, if not in words. At the end of these seven weeks it will be the Holy Spirit’s turn to take over. Alleluia!