and whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill


“Following Jesus isn’t as hard as we make it; and it’s more demanding than we treat it.”



Easter has come and gone. But the truth is, we’re a little too quick to think Easter is over. Because the thing is, whenever Jesus shows up, he brings Easter all over again! And the thing about Jesus is, he loves to show up. Especially when and where we don’t expect!
After Easter we’ll be spending our time in the book of Acts and the Epistle to the Philippians. As you read your way through these scriptures, you can’t help but notice the ways Easter keeps happening! 
None of the characters act on their own initiative, they’re always being led! Led by the very same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. And often enough, that Spirit works moments strikingly reminiscent of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection! Saul is raised to a new life. Ananias is asked to risk his. Paul finds in his weakness the strength of the one who humbled himself to the point of death. 
The message of Easter is that the story of Jesus isn't over, it’s just beginning!

The Sunday after Easter is sometimes called low-Sunday because of the dip in attendance. The visitors have gone back home and even the most committed think a Sunday morning sleeping in sounds nice. But I have to tell you, I’ve come to love the Sunday after Easter. 
After all, isn’t the story of Easter the story of a day no one was expecting anything more than business as usual? And wasn’t it that Sunday everyone walked away shell-shocked by what Jesus has done?
I’ve come to find that Easter rings more true on the Sunday after Easter, not less…
Because the story of Easter didn’t end with the empty tomb. It didn’t even at the conclusion of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, either. It didn’t end with The Acts of the Apostles, for that matter! Why the story of Easter didn’t even come to an end with the book of Revelation!
The story of Easter keeps happening. It happens every time two or three dare to gather in the name of the resurrected one!
And that doesn’t mean Easter will only happen each time we gather—although it will! It doesn’t even mean Easter will happen in your life and death—although it will! It mean Easter is happening in the story of Faith and Trinity. Right now. 

What if what we’re doing together isn’t merely a matter survival? What if the Spirit is busy writing the story of Easter?
It’s hard to see, I know. But to everyone, all Good Friday looked like was a tragedy. It wasn’t until they looked back from the new life Jesus gave, that they saw that day for what it was. And no less is true for us. 
I’ll admit, the path we walk isn’t always clear. It’s hard to see what God is up to. In fact, I wonder how many of us have given up thinking God is at work altogether. But if the promise of Easter is true, and it is; than Easter is happening more often than we know. Hard though it may be to see in the moment. 
The truth is, we don’t have to figure out our future. What we’re up to isn’t that hard. It is more demanding, though. We’re being put in the story of the one who died in God’s name and only to be risen again by it. We're being offered the death of what we have, to be raised to what God gives. It's a frightening prospect... 
But on the other side of the life Jesus gives, all that's left is joy.

~Pr. Ryan

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