Pastor's pen April 2006

Dear Friends in Christ,

"Christ is risen. He is risen indeed."

These words will once again echo throughout Christendom as the great Festival of Easter and its season of celebration quickly approach. The message of these words is that things are not the same in this world since that first Easter. Each year’s celebration is a recognition of the daily gift of eternal life offered to the whole world in the redemptive life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. This eternal life is not just one of length but also and even more importantly one of quality and relationship. It is a life lived in the presence of God and serving as a tool of God’s grace for the sake of the world.

The question for us is how do we keep this Easter joy alive in our daily lives? How do we share with the world the good news of God’s love in grace in such a way that through the work of the Spirit people can not keep themselves from being claimed as children of God’s dominion? First and foremost would be to remember that we are in fact Easter people. No one and nothing can take away what God has given us. We have the assurance of victory in the Risen Lord. We have the opportunity then to model a different way of life and experience for the sake of the whole world. We no longer are to be shaped by the status quo but rather we are called to be one’s who help to shape a new world at God’s command. This world is to be formed around Christ’s command to love one another even as he has loved us. As Jesus was a servant for the sake of the world so Jesus’ followers are called to serve.

Knowing that the war has been won in Christ does not mean that God settles for things as they are in the world. The battles against sin and evil in the world continue. Oppression and injustice continue to raise their heads even when we have the best of intentions. God’s Spirit continues to be at work calling us to the life that has been declared for us in Christ. The Spirt strengthens and nourishes us to faithfulness in Christ. The Spirt picks us up and dusts us off when we fall and sends us out again with good news for the whole world.

When we announce that Christ is risen may we do so with big voices filled with confidence and joy. By the work and power of the Spirit in us may our lives shout those words of the good news to the world each and every day.

"Christ is risen. He is risen indeed."