THREE THOUGHTS AT EASTER [Su, 4-12-20]

Christ In Winter: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Days of Winter

THREE THOUGHTS AT EASTER     [Su, 4-12-20]

FIRST

We understand the story of Easter--the story of life, the story of the world—from the end backward. I must start the story of Jesus, the story of life, at the conclusion of the empty tomb, rather than at the birth in Bethlehem, if I am to understand what Jesus’ life is all about, what my life is all about. [1]

SECOND

The season of Lent in the church year isn’t just for “practicing holy habits.” It is to prepare us for Easter, to allow us an opportunity to straighten up our spiritual house so that we are ready to welcome the truth of God in Christ, the truth of Easter, into our lives. If religious habits, holy or otherwise, become an end in themselves, they get in the way of the empty tomb. They become the stone that has to be rolled away.

THIRD

We are not bodies that have souls, we are souls that have bodies. Death does not conquer life.

“…we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor corona virus nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [2]

Okay, I added that part about corona virus, but it surely fits into the “anything else in all creation” category.

Happy—yes, Happy!—Easter.

John Robert McFarland

1] I get this from Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. Of course, I get all my ideas from others, but this one, I know exactly from whom it comes

[2] Romans 8:38-39, NRSV.