It is the Monday morning after Easter Sunday, 2023. I always come into the church building on this Monday, every year. Easter energizes me, and I am always eager and ready to get to work. I know that’s not the case for everyone who works in ministry, but that’s how I have always experienced it.
This morning, I came in as usual. The only other people in the building are the people counting yesterday’s offering. After I put my stuff down in my office, I stopped to say hello and thank you to them. I then made my way into the sanctuary, still decorated, still vibrating with the energy of worship, empty and silent but somehow also full and echoing with alleluias.
I prayed. Then I sat down at the piano and played “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” a few times, also a prayer. With a sense of connection and assurance of God’s presence, I got up from the piano to head back to my office.
As I walked, I pulled out my phone. And I saw the notification of the latest mass shooting, this one in Louisville, that five people had been killed and six others wounded. Details are still emerging as I write this note.
“For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.” (James 1:23-24)
I do not want to celebrate Easter Sunday and, the very next day, immediately forget what it was like.
The energy of Easter Sunday still vibrates; we can feel it! And … the world is still wounded, still broken. Violence looms. God’s children suffer still.
I don’t know about you, but I am not willing to let this Easter energy dissipate without doing everything that I can to prevent it. My prayer for this season is that the Church would utilize the power of resurrection to continue to make a difference for Christ in the world. May we announce and embody the good news of God’s love and grace in everything we say and do, in everything that we are.
Easter people, let’s raise our voices in a song of hope for the world! Let’s energize our work of resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. Let’s renew our promise to be the church in prayer, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Let’s be the church God is calling us to be!
Easter people, let us sing!
