Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
As we prepare for the Sunday we call Easter, which is also the Feast of the Resurrection, I want to invite us to think about what the resurrection tells us about God today. It is easy for us to focus on then – when Jesus was raised from the dead. And we can relegate our imagination to the birth of a tradition and the singularity of the second person of the Trinity. But what happens when resurrecting becomes a reflection of who God is?
In practice, much of our common life together in the 21st Century is full of selective resurrections. People die and are gone forever, but brands and companies can be resurrected. So can nations and ideologies.
Much of our common life seems to be spent arguing over what we preserve or conserve – what is worth saving from the chopping block or protecting from extinction. Political campaigns involve ambiguous claims of restoring former greatness or protecting ways of life while we follow a messiah who embodies God’s willingness to bring the dead to life.
How might we embrace a more generous vision of life embodied in the resurrection of Jesus? That God is willing to breathe life into what humans willingly destroy? That our own impulses, fears, and desires condemn? And what does it say about us when we don’t believe in this character of God’s?
As we prepare to proclaim “Christ is risen!” let us ask ourselves what else might join him? What else might rise? And how might we be witnesses to it? For our work is to proclaim God’s resurrecting glory – in word and deed. And there is much for us to witness.
With love,
Drew+