This Sunday morning churches all across America will swell in attendance. It will be a welcomed sight to many pastors and church leaders who are otherwise demoralized throughout the year by the steady increase of empty pews.
Easter Sunday will be a glorious day no less and for a fleeting moment it will restore some hope that all those worshipers who were conscpicoulsny absent for the rest of the year will return again next Sunday and the next and the next . . .
Of course most will not return, but who’s complaining? I’m not because this one Sunday tells me that there are great numbers of people today looking for a word of hope—and Easter Sunday fits the bill rather nicely for all of us.
On this one Sunday of each year preachers will pontificate on the theme of resurrection with grand sermons on the promise of the afterlife, of heaven awaiting those of us not yet deceased, and a present reality for those who have long since passed.
Yes, the Easter message of resurrection is comforting and reassuring. But have we missed out on an opportunity to challenge our worshipers with the Easter story? Have we heretofore focused so intently upon the afterlife dimension of resurrection that we miss the real point of resurrection:
New life in real time!
Have we misled those Easter worshipers into believing that resurrection is only something we hope for following death?
I don't say this in a judgmental or mean-spirited way. I am happy the annual Easter worshipers attend Easter Sunday worship. I welcome them with open arms. But over the years have we missed the opportunity to tell them that Easter is not all about heaven after we die; that it has real time implications for us in real time and offers us real hope in an otherwise hopeless world?
The early disciples of Jesus learned this in the very first worship service on Easter evening.
According to John’s Easter account Jesus appeared to the disciples on the evening of that first Easter Sunday. One could say that this was the first Easter worship service on record. Jesus appeared and twice greeted the frightened disciples by saying: “Peace be with you!” Then he breathed upon them the Holy Spirit. Afterwards he commissioned them to become peacemakers in the world—that is, to live the resurrection life right then and there.
From that moment forward these frightened followers or Jesus became bold witnesses to the resurrection they had just witnessed (and experienced I might add). They too were risen to a new way of being human; a new way of being in the world.
I always challenge Easter worshipers by asking them:
“Has this special Sunday changed you in any way?”
Does it change how they think about the world? Does it compel them to want to follow Christ in the way of peace? Will this Sunday worship experience alter the way they live in the world—the way they practice life in general? These are legitimate questions even if they are a bit pointed.
So here’s the challenge of Easter:
Having worshiped this Sunday will you notice any discernible change taking place within you? Will you leave worship practicing resurrection in real time (à la Wendell Berry)? Will your thought processes be transformed (à la the Apostle Paul, Romans 12:2) thus giving you a new way to be in the world?
Will you approach life in a different way now? Will all your relationships be renewed and restored? Will you become a marinating influence on those around you? Will you view poor people of all stripes differently now? Will you now look at your enemies differently?
Will you become less judgmental and more gracious—even to those you think are undeserving or those with whom you disapprove? Will you become more resolved to love as Christ loved?
Resurrection life is available to each of us right now. For those searching for a new way to be in the world then this is it—practice resurrection now!
This is real time resurrection and quite frankly it is our only hope in the world today!
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment