Furthering thoughts for April 22nd 2019
“The celebration continues…” I know the world will say otherwise as the clearance aisles are piled on with pastel colored eggs and all the peeps you’ve ever wanted, but “Easter is not over”.
Isn’t this the battle we fight? The whole idea of “turning the page” and “getting back to reality” as we put the Easter baskets away?. Because as soon as Monday arrived, it’s easy to turn the page and return to the pattern of living we are so accustomed to. For all of us it is quite easy to busily “turn on and turn off” as we compartmentalize all the facets of our lives. Whether it is our family time, friend time, social time, smartphone time, work time, me time, church time, Netflix time, facebook time, youtube time, honestly, there is a lot of “kondoing” to do!
But through it all, we get lost in “turning on and turning off” as we are inundated by the clutter all the meanwhile forgetting [Remembering the Resurrection! What a great thing it is to re..re…rehear sermons. I highly recommend this for everyone] that Easter has changed not only the world but also you. We live right now and forevermore, the victorious and resurrected life! This is who you are! A blessed gift this is! All delivered by the grace of our Lord who died and rose for you.
Do we still suffer? Yes. Is there affliction? Yes. Do we still battle temptation? Yes. “This is not to say that life will be easy. Life is full of temptations to fall back into unbelief and away from Jesus”.
The devil never stops. For the evil foe throws every clutter at us, to take our eyes off God’s word in Christ Jesus. In our disbelief, we often think that in suffering there is no hope, in affliction there is no peace, and in temptation there is no power to overcome. Yes, the Christian life is not easy if we rely upon ourselves.
But thanks be to God we are not reliant on ourselves but rather our faith is in the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “Being saved means being made new in the eyes of God and transformed by the Spirit of God to love, trust, and rejoice in Jesus’ victory now and forever”. You live the Easter life. Not just on April 21st 2019, or April 12th 2020, or April 4th 2021, but we never turn the page because this is where we live-The Easter Life.
It is in this Easter life that we continue to grow and be strengthened in God’s Word and Sacrament. As we continue to hear and receive the gifts of our Lord, there..by the Holy Spirit, we are sustained and strengthened in faith to always remember who we are in the Easter life.
I was at Costco on Monday and as I was going through the cold cuts aisle, I began to [in my mind] recite the Apostles Creed. I continued to do this as I passed the produce, then to the milk n’ eggs…you get the picture. But the point is, when faced with the battles of this life, we should not stew in our flesh, but dwell on the words of the Creed, “who was crucified died and was buried……and the third day He rose again from the dead”, because there we find ourselves in the Easter life.
It’s through this Easter Life [the good news of great joy] that we love and serve one another in great joy. It is in the Easter life that we pray constantly that the Holy Spirit will open doors of evangelism to speak and defend the truth of the hope that is in us. Because this life in Christ we have is the greatest. Why wouldn’t we want the whole world to hear about it?
So for this day of your Easter life, enjoy, love, serve, speak, lend a hand, and rejoice through it all, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
p.s I made a big goof as I now realize [after writing all of this] that today is April 23rd. I guess it makes a point, that we shouldn’t turn the page 🙂