The Resurrected Life: Living Life a New Way

The celebration of Christ's Resurrection is not simply remembering a miracle that happened to Jesus. In celebrating Easter, we proclaim that existence has fundamentally changed. The cosmos has shifted. Life is no longer limited by death.

For Christians, this understanding informs our whole identity - our thinking, our self-image, our choices, our decisions, and our perspectives. We don't have "all the time in the world." Our time on earth is relatively short. Our time here, in this life is a gift. But it's a gift meant to be given away, especially since we have all eternity afterwards.

From a resurrection point of view, Jesus' teachings make a great deal more sense. Living in fear seems obsolete when we know how our earthly story ends. (It ends in restoration and resurrection.) Living selfishly seems unfathomable when we have such a short time on this earth to share with those who have such great need. (We know all needs will be met in God's perfect time, especially in the hereafter.) Power, fame, and riches are so fleeting, especially when they are based on a corrupt culture that is dying away. (Christ tells us to base our lives on eternal values that will never fade.)

In the next 50 days (Yes, that's right. The Church celebrates Easter for 50 whole days!) we'll be anchoring ourselves in the Resurrected identity. We'll be unlearning the lessons of mortality and learning to think and act as God's immortal children, for that is what we are, in this life and the next.
     

The Spring of Faith: An Easter Message

[This is excerpted from the 2011 Easter parish letter. It is an invitation to faith, to Christ, and to experience the Resurrection...]

The pages of history are full of worthy women and men who tell us God’s greatness, who enlighten us and point to the Salvation of God. Mohandas Gandhi, Moses the Law Giver, St. Francis of Assisi, the Buddha, St. Benedict of Nursia , the Prophet Mohammed, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the mystical, poet, Rumi, are just a few sources of great inspiration and spiritual practice. Through their lives and teachings many have cultivated a deep spirituality and religious practice. And then there is Easter…

Easter is not a person, of course. It’s an event - the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Why compare an event with a list of people? Because we so often become fixated on teaching and practice as the core of Christian faith. We believe Christianity and Christ are things of which we must learn and do. Yes, it is true. Our faith results in understanding and action, but to make these our central focus is to forget our Faith.

In truth, the source of Christian Faith is experience! Faith springs from an encounter, an experience of the Risen Christ. Easter is about God doing something BIG, something death-defying and mysterious, something beyond words. What’s more, God isn’t doing that something in the greater cosmos or in timeless eternity. God is acting right here in humanity, in our history, in our finite little selves. Imagine! This is not something we make happen. We don’t even have to understand what’s happening or why. We just get to experience it, to receive it! All the rest just follows.

I, therefore, invite you to experience Easter once again. Experience new life and renewed faith just as Christ did on that innocuously cataclysmic morning. Experience the mystery not by your own effort, but through by grace and gift of God. You don’t have to do anything. There is no obstacle course to run or test to study for. You don’t even have come believing in anything. Just come. Experience faith and life. Experience the Risen Christ. Come and see…

Our Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!