Only Something That Powerful…

There is something about Easter that evokes childhood memories: egg hunts, family gatherings, my grandfather’s church filled with flowers. I remember one particular sunrise service on Saint Augustine Beach. Even in those years when I didn’t go to church, I would often go on Easter Sunday.

There is something not only about the day itself, but the season, that evokes blessing and newness and hope and possibility – darkness breaking forth into light. There is something that Christians all over the world would pause, to gather, and to sing, and to pray… and even in the face of this fractured world, to hold out for hope.

There is a theologian named Martin Copenhaver who says that sometimes we think about Easter as the dramatic conclusion to Jesus’s life, while actually, it is just the beginning! It’s like high school commencement – not the end but just the beginning.

He writes, “The early church began with realities and deep mysteries large enough and deep enough to reveal something of God.”

That first Easter sparked, and now fuels, a movement that continues to this day. Think about it! Think about how in the wake of this one event, all the hospitals that have been built, the schools and orphanages and homeless shelters that have been constructed and funded and run, the homes that have been blessed, the souls that have been healed and hearts that have been changed… all by the power of the One who was raised…

No wonder Christians continue to come together and sing and pray and to hold on to hope… for the world… for ourselves…

My prayer for you, as we move through this holy season, is that you would ever be open to the healing, redeeming light of Easter. And may that light empower you to follow the Risen Christ.

Let us pray: Holy God, we ask that you would fill us again with the light of Easter. May the power of the Risen Christ bring healing and hope into our lives anew this day. It is in his name we pray. Amen.