What does your Easter ‘do’?

It is Easter Monday, and this is the first day of what happens next. Kind of like the disciples waiting for Jesus in the upper room at the beginning of the book of Acts, we ask that simple question: Now what?

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

That statement of belief resonated globally on Resurrection Sunday as Christians everywhere declared hope and salvation because death had been defeated. And that means we get to live. Depending on which group you talk to it can mean belief across a large spectrum, from a declaration for a future destination, away from this earth, to rally cry for a restored earth today, the literal ‘thy kingdom come’, and everything in between. One thing we all agree on is that the resurrection, the reason for Easter or Pascha, should do something for those who believe. 

It is easy for us to sit in the warm theological pool discussing what Easter means to us, but it is a very different thing to talk about what we do because of it.

Now, this is not a sermon of ‘shoulds’ and a call to more projects. Lord knows we have enough of that in our story. This is about considering what a belief means after the celebration. Is it a moment of reverence to acknowledge an act we hold dearly? Or does it hold reverence because it is the pinnacle of the year of meaning well lived? I catch myself in these questions a lot these days as I consider how my belief feeds my view of the world around me. More often than I care to admit, the world feeds my approach to this ‘Easter living’ and the prayer becomes an utterance of disgust, a “Good Lord!” This is quite opposite of my stated belief that leans heavily in the direction of, “Where is the good, Lord?” and followed by, “Make me aware of spaces and ways to make it ‘…on earth as it is in heaven’.”

Sometimes it becomes lament and disgust with very little attention to the resurrected hope. 

Living in North America these days we easily rely on our government leaders to be the image of divine hope. It is easily done in a privileged society, one where we have an answer to most problems, where we are encouraged to be self-sufficient islands connected only in spaces of commerce and leisure. The ‘up yonder’ becomes an elected official or a CEO, or maybe even a celebrity, that will somehow push the mechanisms of society in a way that benefits us right now. Today, possibly more clearly than ever, we see how misguided it is when we give the hope of the kingdom of God over to the latest aspirations of a human empire, elected or not. When we live in the land of want, those closest to the mechanics of fulfilment tend to be fed first, leaving many to wonder when the trickle-down will reach their street.

Injustice is not new. Neither is self-absorption. We talk a lot about personal freedom these days, but it is interesting how much that freedom can sound like the same elements we detest in the powers at work in this world… just personalized and localized to suit us.

So, what does your Easter do? I think of the 2 approaches from 2 very different world leaders on Resurrection morning. Both influential, both bringing meaning into the world around them, but carrying a very different sense of importance and focus. We can follow either direction at our level in our own sphere of influence, making visible what we desire to take place in the days to come. I can only answer the question for myself, and I truly hope I have more days focused on the kingdom at work than on my own endeavours. 

I hope the same for you. I hope your Easter ‘does’ some amazing things before the next one.