A New Creation Comes into Being
An Easter Devotion from the Racial Equity Team
It is Easter Morning!
The pastor joyously announces___ “HE IS RISEN.”
The congregation responds with reassuring joy___ “HE IS RISEN, INDEED.”
Then with glad resounding voices the choir and all the congregation sing…
Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant Holy Day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!
Hymns of praise, let us sing, Alleluia!
Unto Christ, our heavenly king, Alleluia!
Forty Two years ago I thought my three year old daughter had died. I was full of dread and fear, I was lost, in agony and filled also with regret and self-blame. I was also scared, felt bewildered and hopeless. Carla, her mother and I made a happy road trip to the Ocho Rios Beach Hotel for a fun weekend.
On the morning following our arrival, I took a stroll along the beach leaving Carla with her mother. Not long after I returned to where I had left them. Looking around I did not see Carla. She was no where to be seen. Her mother did not know where she was.
Although we had the help of tourists, local strangers and friends of every class and race helping to find her, she still could not be found. I was scared, felt the sense of loss and regret. I became angry. I was angry at myself, her mother and Carla. Why did I take her there to die? Why did her mother allow her to stray? Why did Carla leave on her own?
I walked along the water’s edge peering in and scanning its surface and shoreline dreading the thought of recovering her lifeless body. Then I heard the call. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.”
I turned and there was Carla, running along a path a little way from the beach, towards me. In her hands were sea shells she had picked up. Gifts she had brought me. I ran to her, knelt down, and held her tightly. It was a while before I heard the cheers and the clapping of hands by all who had helped in the search. That night we, Carla, Lana and I, celebrated her return from being lost; her, as it were, “rising from the dead”; her resurrection.
Especially at Easter, I recall my story and contemplate the experiences of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Eleven Disciples and all the then followers of Jesus I think of the emotional pain and suffering they felt when Jesus died and was buried. But oh, the joy and thankfulness they celebrated when and after he revealed his resurrected self.
TO PONDER: In Christ’s resurrection, a New Creation has come to life...and it grows; and the whole world, not just the Christian world, is restored.
The ELW Hymn 449, verse 4 tells us that “….As Christ’s new body takes on flesh and blood/……. The universe restored and whole will sing, / Hallelujah”! No longer is the event just history. The resurrection to me signifies a renewal of my life as I eat and drink or served to others, the bread and wine that are the body and blood of Christ. I see the resurrection in the sacred rite of the baptism (more noticeable in the immersion type baptism). One more reality for me.
The man Jesus did not stay dead. And, because he did not stay dead the Christian Faith has its reality. It was not the story of a Jewish man who preached and healed, taught and inspired, and was cruelly killed on a Roman instrument of execution, and that was that. Writers of the event who have been there, and have experienced their own dread and fear of being executed also, have recorded the historical fact. I benefit from their accounts written in the Gospels. So, I learn, I know, and believe.
Also important to me is this: It is not enough just to remember the resurrection on Easter. Each and every year I must, just as I celebrate the birth of Jesus, celebrate his Resurrection for longer periods and in other special ways.
N.T.Wright, renown New Testament scholar, a prominent author, and Bishop of the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church tells me how. He, with conviction, encourages us all that “Easter is about the wild delight of God’s creative power….and at least we ought to shout Alleluias instead of murmuring them; we should have a real bonfire; we should splash water about as we renew our baptismal vow.”
N. T. Wright further encourages that “...Easter and the nine days following should be celebrated with “...creative new ways; in art, literature, children’s games, music, poetry, dance festivals, bells, special concerts and anything else that comes to mind.”
I fully agree. Don’t you? Let’s BEGIN!
CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED. ALLELUIA!
PRAYER
Dear Jesus, our Savior, Lord, and Brother, inspire our hearts with the Good News of your Resurrection forever new. Make us worthy of the gift of you that is love. Amen.
Horace Davis
First English Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Rapids
