Easter Sunday
Good Friday and Easter Sunday have given us roots that are immortal.
In Christ and through His life, death, and resurrection we are reconciled to taking up again the work of the world, the work of our life. We come again into everyday life. But the transformation is still going on, both in ourselves and in the world in which live out our lives. We know that our own life has begun in earnest and is proceeding. What matters is that we need no longer to be concerned about gaining eternal life for ourselves. We have been given eternal life in Jesus Christ. We know it, we are sure of it. And because of that confidence, because of that faith, we turn our attention and concern to manifesting the Divine life in the forms of our daily living. We are living now from a point of view that is rooted in our sense of our own reality, our own life in God.
This faith, this realization, what Jesus accomplished on the Cross and in the empty tomb, makes our life look new to us, and our new ability to offer love and meaning to the world and people with whom we live become new.
Paul says it best: “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life” Romans 6:4, as does John:
“And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’” Revelation 21:5.
Resurrection starts in Jesus and continues in our lives now and transforms our engagement with the world: Coming back to our small private selves in very ordinary daily life, we also make the truth of Jesus Christ come alive. One of the most striking things that happens to us in our resurrection is that tiny, trivial things seem beautiful and marvelous — which, indeed, they are, as we recognize when we take time to observe and think deeply about them carefully. Such a humble and common thing as water is miraculous in its varied properties, so essential to our survival. What artistry and orderly connections we find all about us, how astonishing the complex world is.
When I lived in Africa I lived with others for three (3) years in the absence of water and luxuriated with them in the plenty of water, and what an experience was such a simple thing such as water. I will never forget stepping onto the great Serengeti the day following the arrival of the first monsoon, and what for years was a vast and dry savannah, gently blowing whirlpools of dust and prairie grass across the tundra, all fading under years of the sub-Sahara sun, was today a savannah filled with tiny orchids pushing up through the parched and worn-out cracked clay, orchids of every color ever created, as if van Gogh had just passed by with his brush and pallet, leaving us the most marvelous display of resurrection color and hope ever! Such a miracle, such resurrection hope is the multiplication of drops of rain!
When we take a little time to remember to look, to marvel, we find that there are sources of joy, of esthetic delight, of quiet happiness on every hand.
Our joy is not confined to ourselves but radiates out to all. Just as Jesus intended to enter into us, so that His joy might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11), so neither can we contain our joy: our peace and happiness envelop all those around us. When we interact with people — or circumstances — we do not feel drained of energy, as we did when we were still obliged to protect and defend ourself. We must live remembering and keeping alive these words of Jesus Christ: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete”
John 15:11.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we feel ourselves fully living, full of the richness of God’s life, the interior monsoon that never fails. The life of Christ now becomes natural for us, no longer something to be compared to an alternative. We are really “saved” when we no longer think of ourselves as “saved,” because there is no alternative. This is when the profound incarnation of Jesus Christ takes places. The reality of God is intensely perceived as present in everything — even in water! The kingdom is hidden right here, even in the passions and illusions of our lives. When we are shaken awake, we see it.
Let that be our prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Peter 1:3.
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” John 11:25.
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” Romans 6:5.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might”
Ephesians 6:10.
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” Romans 6:4.
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