Being an Easter People

Being an Easter People

Resurrection is a hard bit of truth to get our modern minds around, but I have found that the modern mind is often not the best arbiter of truth, particularly spiritual truth.  As a Christian,

I am content to allow God to supplement my modern understanding and sensibilities, even contradict them, with His revelation of what otherwise might logically and reasonably not seem to be real or important.  Allowing God to do this in my life is part of my Walk in Faith.

 

As a Christian, I know that God supernaturally intervenes in His creation- we call these miracles.  Jesus’ Resurrection is the greatest of God’s miracles.  Jesus’ Resurrection opened the possibility of my own resurrection and opened the gates of heaven to my sin-sick soul.  Now, that’s a miracle!

 

The simple truth for us in the Resurrection Story is that God has overcome the debilitating effects of sin, the futility of life separated from God, the sting of death and finality of the grave.  To be a Christian is to live into this reality.  It is in this sense that we are a Resurrection People…an Easter People.

 

To be an Easter People is to come to see life differently.  The Resurrection Life makes the vistas of our modern world very narrow and our secular concepts of living life to its fullest very limited.  To be an Easter People is to have a radically expanded worldview… a worldview as radical as the Resurrection itself.  Resurrection Life is for the adventurous who dare to live as children of God and as “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ,” as Paul puts it in Romans.  Easter People are those who dare to have a faith that opens up new ways of living and an understanding that propels us all heavenward. 

 

For the disciples terrified by the events of the previous three days, the reality of Easter Morning was life-transforming.  Life for them became immensely expanded and infinitely more meaningful.  Their lives were now anchored in something much larger than themselves.  For us, as it was for those first disciples, we are transformed.  Being an Easter People moves us from self-absorption to self-giving.  It makes it possible to shed the debilitating and limiting effects of sin and guilt in our lives.  It allows the Holy Spirit to help us supernaturally transcend the burdens, challenges, hardships, and disappointments of this life.  In short, it is victorious living.

 

Resurrection Life is open ended… not limited by time and space.  It is not limited by death.  Death no longer leaves us with our stories partially written.  Jesus has conquered that barrier.  We are free to become the people that God intended us to be… eternally healthy, whole, perfect, complete.

 

I think most of us here at Holy Trinity have a well-articulated vision of what it means to be an Easter People.  This is the vision that propels us forward.  We invite anyone who feels drawn to the realities of the Resurrection to come journey with us, to be an Easter People. Come experience Resurrection Life with us.

 

The Rev. Rob Hartley, Easter 2014