He Is Risen

Acts 10:34-43

Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

On Easter we gather together by the thousands, by the millions, in fact by the billions, around the world, and we do this crazy thing. We proclaim this wonderfully ridiculous, totally improbable, improvable thing – that Christ has risen from the dead, evil and death have no ultimate power, only God’s goodness and love last. This is the good news I cling to, the hope and the promise that lives at the center of my life. Many have said that it is only a naive fairytale. But I believe that, as Frederick Buechner once said, “Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream.”

For me, Easter is truth. Easter is the promise that life has meaning. If Christ rose from the dead then we have a reason to live nobly, to struggle for justice and peace, because there is a life beyond this one and what we do now matters. For me, the resurrection is like the strongest of anchors in the midst of the stormiest of seas. Without it I am tossed to and fro in this life, completely at the mercy of forces more powerful than myself. But, with the resurrection, comes the promise that no matter what life may do to me, or to you, we are firmly held in place by the love of God. Love is truth. We can drift away, but we cannot be lost. In other words, the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is as important to me and my understanding of the world as is the reality of gravity.

He is risen!

Blessings,
Randy+

prayer

Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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