Look, I’m sending to you what my Father promised, but you are to stay in the city until you have been furnished with heavenly power.”
Luke 24:49 (CEB)
I am thankful that Easter is a season and not a day. Our human nature–conditioned to moving on quickly–might return us to life as if no resurrection has happened. Now that Lent is over and with it any sacrifices made or new practices undertaken we might happily return to a pre-lenten state. Eastertide comes to continue the resurrecting work that has begun, to remind us that resurrection is about everything.
Resurrection is about “a change of heart and mind.”
Resurrection is about dying and being born anew.
Resurrection is about Jesus taking over our very beings.
Resurrection is about thoughts, actions, and ways of looking at the world and being in the world.
Resurrection is a daily choice we make by the power of the Spirit.
Resurrection is about our being grafted into the body of Christ called the Church.
Resurrection is about bearing the fruit worthy of repentance.
Resurrection is about being agents of Christ’s love to all of creation!
But how are we to be this way?
We are unable to be this way left to our own devices. Our bent is to sin and death, to the ways that we continually “rebel against” God’s love. To think that we are God, that we have it together, that we have no need of constant conversion. Soon we find ourselves like the disciples on Holy Saturday, remembering, recalling, and returning.
Jesus knew this! So he sends his Spirit to be with us always. This Spirit guides us, directs us, convicts us, and easters our hearts and lives into being Christ. The Spirit also connects us to God and to the body of Christ called the Church, to the community of the Risen Lord. The Spirit deepens our being and makes possible our bearing fruit worthy of repentance.
People of God, Easter People, raise your voices, pay attention to the Spirit at work in you. Be open to our continual dying and rising and allow Jesus to BE in you, to easter you, to direct you in being love in the world. Could it be that the power promised long ago is still possible today?