Day 48 - Easter people

What an exciting day we had yesterday. We had been through the turmoil and pain of the previous week, culminating with the horror of remembering the cross, death and burial of Jesus and then we waited.

Yesterday we looked into the tomb and found it empty. We rejoiced and celebrated along with the women and the disciples. We found truth in the promise that Jesus had given that he would be raised to life again and we revelled in the power of our almighty God!

And now it’s today...

Does it seem that the Easter joy from yesterday is now just a memory as we consider our return to everyday life? Do we feel slightly empty like the boxes the chocolate eggs we consumed yesterday came in?!

Can we carry the joy of Easter beyond Easter Sunday so that we can be Easter people as we live in the world showing a Risen Lord to those we come into contact with? In the days after Easter Sunday, when the Alleluias may echo hollowly against the background of all the work there is yet to do, we are Easter people who want to believe that Easter is more than a Sunday ... but it is hard.

It is when I dare trust the promise, to live in the moment, that life abundant happens. Not in the echoes of Alleluias of Easter past or in the fears of what the future holds -- but in the Jesus who enters wherever we are and says “Peace be with you” ... who invites us to be present in the Easter moment that is not a Sunday but a way of life: a way of life that is nothing less than the Kingdom of God. What does the kingdom look like? Love, happiness, peace, caring for each other, friendly, joyful. We are the Easter People, and we have some pretty tremendous Good News to tell: a wonderful invitation to offer.

Let us take up Jesus’s command to go out and share the Easter message with everyone around us. Go in faith. Go in his love… share his love with others

Let’s pray

Lord Jesus Christ, we remember how you appeared in all your risen glory – in the garden, in the upstairs room, on the Emmaus road, by the Sea of Galilee – and the dream was born again, the smouldering embers of faith rekindled.

Lord Jesus Christ, a world is waiting, hurting, longing, searching for hope, crying out for meaning, hungry for some reason to believe in the future. Come again in your living power and bring new life to all.

Lord Jesus, where faith has died and dreams have faded, may hope flower again and may we be a part of that hope for your world. Amen

Catherine Booton