From The Pastor - May Spire

"Big news of Easter: Christ has risen!"
Big question of Easter: Have you seen him?"

These words suggest that Easter doesn't mean much until or unless it changes the way we look at and respond to life. Not that Easter is all about us—rather, just the opposite, because to truly see the risen Christ, you and I have to move outside of ourselves. We have to go out into the world and discover how the risen Christ changes the way we see life.

An old expression goes "nothing changes if nothing changes." Now, Easter is about (among other things) change, growth, new life, and the possibility of what can and will be if only we have faith, and are open to what God makes available to us and to the world. But it is impossible to discover possibilities if we look at things in the same old way. It is impossible to discover the newness God offers if we don’t entertain the possibility that there is more to life than what we already know and experience, and then venture forth to dis- cover what this new possibility looks like.

In the book Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope, Joan Chittister writes “our lives are more than any one event and ... we, not fate, are really what will determine what the rest of our lives will be.” (pg. 32) This truth can help us as we celebrate the new life God reveals in Easter. Seeing the risen Christ in the midst of our lives affirms that people of faith, that is Easter people, have hope. This hope guides and nurtures us as we discover both the possibilities we see and those yet to be revealed.

To see the presence of the risen Christ, that is the evidence of God's presence in our world, we need imagination, openness and a willingness to ask, "what if...?” as we ask a living, loving God to challenge us to look beyond what we have always assumed. Resurrection, new life, often comes out of struggle and change. It is the transition from what was to what could be... if only we have enough faith to place our trust in God.

The Easter story tells us that God offers us possibility, promise, and new life. Let us celebrate the Easter story in ways that open us to the gift that God offers in the midst of life. It is the gift that comes when others see the risen, living Christ through the way we live.

Peace and Happy Easter,

Eric