Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Alleluia!
When it all mattered, (when God could have and perhaps should have given up on the human race as hopelessly and incorrigibly corrupt) God surprised his people once again. Jesus, who had been crucified, was raised from the dead. Jesus was raised that the entire world might rejoice in the goodness of God and the apparently irrational forgiveness of God, which defies all rules and “shoulds” and “oughts”. Jesus was raised because God’s love is eternal, which proved once and for all that human sin could not separate God from his Son, Jesus. We inherit that promise!
It is no small thing for the Creator of heaven and earth to come among us in the flesh. Jesus, the Son of Man and Son of God, shared our human nature. He risked rejection. He dared to believe that people could be virtuous and choose the good, the holy, the lovely and the just. Jesus embodied a new way of life. Not the same old “dog eat dog”, eye for an eye mentality of mistrust, greed and violence. Jesus shattered the myth of redemptive violence, showing the cross for what it was, an instrument of shame and death, a mockery of the love of God. We are challenged to live with Jesus in the Kingdom he announced and embodied. We are invited to speak words of grace and hope to a hurting, distracted world.
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church exists that others and we might “know Christ, grow in Christ, and share Christ’s Love.” This mission is noble and right. It begins with you and me. In this Easter Season we dare to believe that each of us has a role to play in the redemption of the world, and that our work begins with ourselves. The first task is to take to heart the fundamental truth about us, that we are children of God. Moreover, if Christ is raised, we, too, are raised with him. As always, I invite you to take 20 minutes of silence a day, simply dwelling the presence of Christ. Remember who you are (your last name is Christian, as is mine) and who you belong to. God will surprise us with his love. We are blessed!
Happy Easter!
Merrill
