Monday, April 25, 2011

The Day After

Easter is over, unless you are among the select few home from work because "Easter Monday" still means something.  The kids are coming down from their sugar highs and we gear up for grilling out and sporting the American flags as the Memorial Day/Fourth of July holiday season is upon us.  We are winding down from our school years and preparing for family vacations.  Beaches and pools beckon us.  And likely, church pews will empty.  Our charity and consideration for others so present during the winter season of Thanksgiving and Christmas wanes and our minds turn toward escape and relaxation.

I'm not sure if this is a fair description of what happens now, but for myself it becomes very easy to slide into this rut.  But today I think about what the day after resurrection means.  For Jesus' disciples, Maundy Thursday through Saturday must have been so confusing and sorrowful.  Easter Sunday would be incredulous and jubilant, perhaps so much so that they were stopped in their tracks.  But what about the day after.  The realization that the man in whom they had cast their hope, who had apparently died and left them abandoned and alone in their folly, had indeed defeated death and returned from the dead only to ascend before their eyes into heaven.

Do we really believe that?  Because the idea is pretty crazy.  Crazy enough that starting with the day after, Jesus followers had to honestly start asking themselves "what now!?"  Really, do you just drop your jaw and say "wow, Jesus just died and came back to life and I'm watching him ascend into heaven" and then just go back to whatever you were doing, or just start moving on toward the next "normal" holiday or season in the year.  The disciples knew this required action and they followed Jesus instructions to "go and make disciples."  They built the church and established the legacy that would sustain the Christian faith for millenia.  That's what they did the day after Easter. (ok, I'm using the word day in a metaphorical sense, but the question remains)

What are we doing the day after Easter?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to continue working out my faith and understanding of God. I'll do this in community and hopefully bless the community of this earth in the process.

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