A Post-Easter World
Isn’t it the most beautiful day today? After our men’s bible study, we walked to and from the bagel shop, and I just couldn’t get over it. Get outside today, if you’re able!
Today’s beauty reminded me that, more than the weather,
we live in the beauty of a post-Easter world.
We live in a world where resurrection – life, with and from God – is our future.
We live in a world where, in Christ, it can be our present too.
That was the big theme and message of the last few weeks of sermons in our “Because I Live” series. My hope for you is that it’s not just a series – or message – that is forgotten and moved past;
I hope it is a lived reality.
Towards that end, I wanted to share with you a prayer from my favorite theologian that captures it well, and feels right on a beautiful day like today. As you read it, pray it along with him – or put it into your own words, so that Easter isn’t simply a day last weekend, nor is the message of resurrection just a spring sermon series,
…it is (new) life.
Here is the Easter prayer:
Lord God, our Father, you are the light in which there is no darkness. And now you have kindled in us a light that can never be extinguished and that will ultimately drive out all darkness. You are the love that knows no coldness. And now you have loved even us and freed us to love you and each other. You are the life that mocks death. And now you have given us access to this eternal life. You have done all this in Jesus Christ, your Son, our brother.
Do not let us—let none of us—remain dull and indifferent to your gift and revelation. Let us on this Easter morning (season) see at least something of the riches of your goodness; let it enter into our hearts and minds, and let it enlighten us, uphold us, comfort us, and admonish us!
None of us is a great Christian; rather, we are all very small Christians. But your grace is sufficient for us. Awaken us to the small joy and thankfulness that we are capable of, the timid faith that we bring, the incomplete obedience that we cannot refuse—to the hope in the greatness, wholeness, and completeness that you have promised us in his resurrection from the dead. We ask that this hour may serve that purpose. Amen.
—Karl Barth, Fifty Prayers, 29–30.