“Easter people, raise your voices, sounds of heaven in earth
should ring. Christ has brought us
heaven’s choices; heavenly music, let it ring.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Easter people, let us sing.”
So proclaims one of the great songs of resurrection and
faith. Proclaim the good news of the
resurrection and all that it means for us and for, as the Gospel of John
writes, all the world.
And yet, we can become so used to the idea of Easter that it fails to provoke any spiritual
growth in our lives. We become
complacent and content, moving back into our lives without further
reflection. But we miss a great
opportunity to grow merely by reflecting on the story of Easter. How does this story change us as a people, as
a congregation, and as followers of Christ?
I would like to suggest that the answer to these questions
might very well be found in the post-resurrections stories themselves.
After the resurrection, Jesus appears to a variety of people
in a variety of settings. However, the
one theme that stands out in these encounters is that Jesus has changed. In the story of the road to Emmaus in the
Gospel of Luke we see this most clearly.
Jesus was not immediately recognized.
As Peter Bush said of this story, “Notice that they did not
even comment to the stranger who was walking with them, ‘You look a lot like
this Jesus we are talking about.’ They
did not say to one another after they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the
bread, ‘I knew there was something about him that was familiar.’ The way Jesus looked post-resurrection was
different from the way he had looked before he went to the cross – different
enough that he could not be recognized.”[1]
What I would suggest is that our faith is transformative. And while you and I may not experience the
same radical transformation that Jesus underwent, our faith can fundamentally change our lives. I know of many people who, after committing
their lives to God have become different people. In my own life I can look back and see
transformations that came about by my willingness to hear the direction of the
Spirit. Our faith is to shape who we are
becoming.
It is my hope that as a church and as individuals, we will
allow our faith to become that which enables us to be transformed by God and
thereby transform the world around us.
Instead of simply going to
church, let us become the
church. May our lives be such that our
faith is evident. May we be transformed
by Easter and may we continue to grow in our Christian walk.
“Every day to us is Easter, with its resurrection
song.” If we allow the message to take
root, it very well might be the transformative message that we and the world
are longing to hear.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Charles
