Dear friends in the Risen Lord.
On the first Easter morning the sorrowing women come to anoint the body of Jesus and are greeted with the astonishing words of the angel: “Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? He is not here. He has been raised up” (Luke 24:5-6). This marvelous “good news” has echoed up and down the generations proclaimed in and through the works of Christ’s body, the Church. It is for this very reason that the Church, which is the people of God, does not exist for itself. The Church exists to proclaim this message of the angel through its very life and work. Thus we do not proclaim: “Hallelujah - through his cross and resurrection Jesus has saved ME” but rather proclaim “Hallelujah – through his cross and resurrection Jesus has brought life to the world”.
In his book, “Surprised by Hope”, author N.T. Wright speaks about the events of Holy week and the meaning of the resurrection. He states:
“It is the story of God’s kingdom being launched on earth as in heaven, generating a new state of affairs in which the power of evil has been decisively defeated, the new creation has been decisively launched and Jesus’ followers have been commissioned and equipped to put that victory and that inaugurated new world into practice. Atonement, redemption and salvation are what happen on the way because engaging in this work demands that people themselves be rescued from the powers that enslave the world in order that they can in turn be rescuers.” (Surprised By Hope pg. 204)
In other words, to be an Easter people, indeed to be an Easter Church, we must follow the way of the cross and if we want to benefit from Jesus’ saving death we must participate in what he began that first Easter - the renewal of the world.
Friends, every act of love, gratitude, kindness, charity, and justice is participation in this renewal. In all the ways that we actively seek justice and resist evil (as our Creed says so eloquently) we can be assured that these actions will find their way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God began that first Easter morning. This is the hope and real promise of Easter. This Easter my prayer for Sparling is that the Lord en-flame our hearts that we might be moved to be an Easter people and in turn, an Easter Church.
Rev. Scott R. MacAuley, B.A., M.Div.
Pastor, Sparling United Church
