Reach For Resurrection!

During the past three days we gathered around a table to remember Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, remembered his betrayal, arrest and crucifixion, and then sat in the stillness and silence of Holy Saturday. We imagine what the disciples must’ve felt: the deep grief of the loss of their teacher, the death of a movement that held so much promise, the hopelessness of it all as they thought about returning to their former lives.

We, too, sit in this liminal space. However, unlike the disciples, we know the rest of the story: how on Easter morning the women discovered an empty tomb and later, the resurrected Christ. Mourning is turned into dancing as Love’s redeeming work breaks the power of sin and death.

I have seen the miracle of resurrection happen again and again and again. Have you? Resurrection happens each time someone reaches for recovery. Resurrection happens when broken hearts discover the flame of love leaping up again. Resurrection happens when relationships that had frozen over and become lifeless grow once more. As sure as the seedlings that sprout forth in a burned-out forest, resurrection happens. As sure as the night turns to dawn, resurrection happens. As sure as those who dare to rebuild even when nature did its best to destroy what once was, resurrection happens.

Through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we learn that God will never break solidarity with us: God’s love for us is constant. In this love is always and forever the promise of new life. 

“Woman, why are you weeping?” first the angel asks Mary, and then later Jesus asks the same thing. Didn’t she believe all Jesus had told her? 

Do we believe the Gospel’s Good News? Really?

Woman, why are you weeping?

Man, why are you weeping?

Friend, why are you weeping?

The Good News of Easter is meant for all of us. How would our living change if we believed that we, too, can experience resurrection power in our own lives? What would happen in your congregation if you believed that resurrection is being offered to you all? And what is happening even in our United Methodist Church right now: how is God’s Love breaking out of the tomb of despair to offer new life?

Tomorrow, enter into the Easter story fully, for it is something that not only happened one early morning in Jerusalem. We are called the Easter people for a reason. Reach for resurrection!