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Christ is risen! Christ is risen,
indeed!
These are the words we proclaim on Resurrection Sunday and every
Sunday throughout the Easter season. Our church centers its life
around this joyful message – the joy of Easter. Each Sunday is a
mini Easter, commemorating God’s liberation through Jesus’s life,
death, and his resurrection from the grave. Every act of worship
celebrates Christ's living presence among us, a presence that
transcends time and space. Easter, dear friends, is the focal point
of our community, a continuous invitation to celebrate the victory
of life over death, love over hatred and isolation, and hope over
despair.
From before the beginning, God’s love creates, liberates, redeems,
and sustains us. The Apostle Paul reminds us that nothing in this
life or the next can ever separate us from the love of God. Easter
is a season of rejoicing – every part of our life invites joyful
celebration. We celebrate in the joyful freedom and constancy of
God’s dealings with us, even amid our suffering and separation. I
love how my former professor, Dr. Amy Plantinga Pauw, puts it: “Our
rejoicing is a sharing in the boundless good pleasure of the triune
God, whose life-giving love for creation is never exhausted.” From
the poverty of the manger to the agony of the cross, the joy of God
encompasses all creation! Yes, suffering is present, and we will
continue to find ways to separate ourselves from God, creation, and
ourselves. Yet, the promising, everlasting hope of God is embodied
in God’s grace through the Risen Christ, who dwells within us now
and forever.
I appreciate that we in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate Easter in
the Spring season. As the incarnation points toward the sacred
within creation, the joy of the resurrection encompasses all forms
of life. Look out your window. Do you see the green grass? The
Robin? Can you hear the Chickadee? Watch that mischievous Squirrel.
From the unnoticed Minnows in Kickapoo Creek to the playful Fawns
that will soon appear at Madigan Park, the joy of God – the delight
of the Holy Three – has always been for all Their creation. Take a
moment to grab your Bible and flip to chapters 38-41 of Job. God
delights in humanity, yes, but also in the Behemoth and Leviathan,
formidable forces of chaos that overwhelm all human control! As
Spring fully unfolds in Lincoln and Logan County, we rejoice in
God's love that, through the resurrection, heals all creation!
After more than forty days of immersing ourselves in the wilderness
of Lent, let us once again hear the words of the resurrection story:
"Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was
crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.”
Easter joy stems from the realization that death has lost its power,
and because Christ lives, we too can live. Living in the liberating
energy of the risen Christ compels us to share that joy. Eternal
life is ours – now, tomorrow, and forever! Let us sing alleluia and
rejoice in the radiating love of God that shines throughout all
creation – a communion that has no end!
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I conclude with these words from Rev.
Ana Blaedel.
“and so, this easter, may our hallelujahs catch in our breath
until every hallelujah we sing breathes life into precious flesh
sung in refusal of violent death’s sting
sung in defiance of empire’s terroring
sung in resistance to genocide’s justification
sung in noncompliance with oppression’s normalization
sung in easter vigil–a hymn of resurrection!–
in wreckage, we remain
from wreckage, we rise
we shoulder up among the ruins, and
we return to each other beyond the tombs.
hallelujah, dear ones, and may we make it so.”
Happy Easter, friends! Let us live as a people of the resurrection!
[The Rev. Dr. Adam R Quine
First Presbyterian Church]
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