The World Needs Resurrection
Easter is placed upon all who have pledged their allegiance first to this Resurrected Christ, and I’d even go so far as saying that it goes beyond us; I believe that God’s Spirit is in every person.
By Rev. Tim Tate
PASTOR, FREDERICKSBURG UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
There are times as a pastor where I wonder if I can keep going.
When the disgruntled speak loudly and clearly. When mistakes are made and betrayals come. When the politics of the world hold far too much influence over the lives of we who claim that Christ’s law of love is for all, despite political opinion, background, or circumstance. When the world has gone mad, and it seems just enough to keep our heads above water. When it is hard to try and make sense of the chaos, much less translate hope through the lens of following Christ. Ministry is hard, and yet, it never has and never was intended to be easy.
The truth is, it is in times like these that I hear the voice in my heart and head telling me, 1) this is job security, and 2) this is why we are here. In this dog-eat-dog world, enveloped in self-centeredness and self-gratification, there is an alternative world into which we who follow Christ are called to proclaim and live.
I am reminded of how vitally important it is to witness love in the face of hate and division. To walk with a community where guns go off in classrooms and in the streets. Where unhoused neighbors seek shelter from storms that are less about weather and warmth than being treated as unwanted and overlooked by society. Where racism, sexism, and so many other “isms” are still at play. Where parties, communities, families, denominations, and faiths insulate us out of fear and a desired need for comfort and “strength in numbers.”
I’ve been at this for over 30 years, and with every year I realize more and more this call to witness the kind of love that is willing to sacrifice for the sake of the other. Something that is far more challenging than I/we want but has the potential to change a life, change a perspective, change a path. Sometimes that change is in others but often in myself.
We all know that anxiety levels are off the charts. There is great angst over “what might come next,” and somehow in our post-enlightened culture we think that we have it worse than anyone else ever has. It is then that I think of Jesus and what He faced when he was here – the fear-mongering power of the Roman Empire that at the time was the most powerful in the world.
The Empire would have control. There would be order. The powerful would wield that power, and those at the bottom of the rungs of society were left to their fate. The haves would have and the have-nots would have to figure it out.
It is to the least in society that Jesus came. The unclean. The women. The children. Those with no home or food, and those for whom mental illness was the reality into which they lived. The orphan. The widow. The same ones that we can so easily overlook in our day.
But Jesus, the embodiment of Love came to them, turning the world upside down, proclaiming the least are first in God’s Kingdom, and those who are first in this world, will be last.
It’s a jarring proclamation. Disturbing in fact. And yet, for we who follow the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ hold onto this truth. We hold onto this kind of Love, because when love takes hold, relationships are formed, and when relationships are formed, connections are made. When connections are made there is an increased chance that walls of division and fields of hate might be lessened and even vanish. When Love becomes the main focus of our lives, anything can happen.
Today is Easter, the Christian celebration that Love Wins. A proclamation that Love was and is so powerful a force through the embodiment of Love, Jesus Christ, death is ultimately defeated! Jesus walked out of the tomb, and this is the greatest act of Love.
God knew then, and God knows now, that if there is anything the world needs, it is Resurrection. The world needs the death and destruction around us to cease. The world needs modeled a way of living that does not hide in darkness but seeks to be exposed to the Amazing Love of an Undead God. In Christianese, the world needs to see and receive the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom of Love that is and will always be more important, more powerful than any threat or power or system. This Kingdom, at the core of the three Abrahamic faiths, is that one day the world will be changed. Resurrection proclaims this unity, hope, and peace.
I write this as a pastor, but this call to love, this celebration of Easter, is not relegated to the clergy. It is placed upon all who have pledged their allegiance first to this Resurrected Christ, and I’d even go so far as saying that it goes beyond us, for I believe that God’s Spirit is in every person. Imagine if we all put love first? Imagine if we sought for the other? Imagine if we shared a little more, connected a little more, sought understanding a little more, worked together a little more? What would the world look like?
It might just look like New Life. We might experience Hope in the midst of suffering and anxiety. It might look the world God intends. It would be Easter, and all would be changed.
Easter blessings to you and yours!
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