April 21, 2022

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?” the angels ask the women at the tomb on Easter morning. They tell them that Jesus is not in the tomb, but alive. Hope is not gone but is expanding and growing and refuses to be uprooted by death and violence and rejection. After all, this is not death’s story, this is God’s story and God has swept us into this story and into this new life.

In this story, we as individuals, families, communities, churches, societies, and nations dig graves for ourselves through violence and war, lies and selfishness, arrogance and hate, addiction and abuse. We put ourselves, our neighbor, and love itself in these graves. God pulls us out of those graves and loves us back to life over and over again.

Not just once and not just for Christ, but through Christ’s resurrection to new life, God makes everything new and brings us into that new and resurrected life right now.

We live this new way when we are led by love. When we consider our neighbor’s needs before and above our own. When we refuse to participate in ways of thought and action that create an “other” or an “us and them.” When we mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. When we empathize with those who are suffering around us and refuse to ignore their suffering because it does not directly impact us. We live this new life when we share generously what we have, when we hold fast to joy and hope, when we are not too proud to ask for help and not too worried about our image to make relationships with those who have been marginalized.

We live the resurrection when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, welcome the stranger, and work for an end to the root causes of hunger, poverty, and all injustice. We live the resurrection when we let go of our self-centered desires and priorities and spend our energy and resources to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 

Easter is the new thing only God can do.
Our call is to live this new and resurrected life rooted in the truth that the worst thing is not the last thing, that hope is alive and growing, that death and destruction surround us at times but they never have the last word because life and love win.

Find a new way to live this resurrection this week.

Blessings,
Pastor Drew