This week I saw the perfect Easter sign (one that every
church leader—from choir member and administrative assistant to music minster
and pastor, probably has tacked up in a corner of their mind):
He is Risen
WE ARE CLOSED
Happy Easter!
Some of us can’t wait for Easter Monday (or even Easter
afternoon!). We have done our best through choir rehearsals, Maundy Thursday’s
Last Supper, Friday’s Tenebrae service, prepping the sanctuary for Easter,
getting ready to welcome guests to worship, and the grand finale: Easter
worship! Jesus might have come out of the tomb…but by the time worship is over,
we can’t wait to crawl into our bed. We can’t wait to hang a “We are closed”
sign up.
But, funny thing.
Resurrection happened!
Through no effort of our own, God breaks through with the
Good News that death no longer has the final say. Whatever deaths we face, God
promises new life through resurrection power. And this means that anything is
possible.
I always couldn’t wait to finish the Lent-Holy Week-Easter marathon
and crash. But the message of new life somehow got through to the church—it is
time to rise and shine and do a new thing in the name of Jesus! New discipleship
programs, new outreach ministries, new mission engagements…
And I was too depleted to respond well to the signs of
resurrection happening in my church.
My prayer is that you have paced yourself well this week, so
that as resurrection takes hold in your church, you will be ready to engage in
the new life God is bringing forth in your very midst.
This is no time to repeat Good Friday’s phrase, “It is
finished.”
In fact, God’s only just begun.
