Further Reflection: Easter and Resurrection

For worship on May 3, Carla asked a few church family members to share the meaning they were finding in Easter. She liked what was said enough to suggest we publish the reflections here. We’ll post one each day.

I'll be honest with you - I'm stuck on Good Friday right now. Bad things keep happening, and I can't see an end to it. So when I was asked to reflect on what Easter means to me, I wasn't sure what I was going to say.

I found myself thinking about Rachel Held Evans, who died seven years ago tomorrow.

She wrote in Searching for Sunday that she wondered whether we had made this whole story of resurrection up - because we are afraid of death. She recognized that faith is a risk. We might be wrong. But for her, the story of Jesus was something she was willing to risk being wrong about.

That stayed with me.

Because I think about those disciples at the empty tomb on Easter morning. They could have simply walked away. Skipped the risk. Kept their heads down. But something compelled them to go and do the work anyway - to share the news, to live out Jesus' command to love one another, even those who had crucified their brother - even in the face of fear and doubt.

The resurrection doesn't free us from fear and doubt. It just means we don't let fear and doubt have the last word. The resurrection is also not a free pass to salvation. There are responsibilities that come with it. Responsibilities this congregation takes seriously.

Scott and I have worshipped here for nearly twenty-nine years. Most major milestones

in our lives have happened in community with you. And what I've learned - what I keep learning - is this: Good Friday is not forever. And we are never all stuck on Good Friday at the same time.That's what community is. We hold each other up.

So we continue to get up. We love our neighbors. We march when they are being persecuted. We speak out about injustice. We feed His sheep. We take risks. We do the work Jesus commanded - not because we have no doubts, but because, like the disciples, we have decided the story is worth the risk.

Kimberly Carswell