Live a Resurrected Life
Posted on Apr 24, 2019 by
Holy Week was incredible! On Maundy Thursday, eight of our children received their First Communion. The joy and excitement they shared was infectious. And then the next day, on Good Friday, we gathered to hear our choir share the Passion story in song and we partook in the glorification of the cross and we prayed together. It was truly a Spirit-led evening, to say the least. And then, of course, we celebrated Easter on Sunday. I was exhausted when all was over, but also filled with joy and gratitude. I love Easter and I love standing before a full sanctuary and saying boldly, “Christ is risen!” and then hearing the congregation respond loudly with “He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”. I get a smile on my face just thinking about that and realizing we will begin each worship service throughout the Easter season with this same proclamation
But now with the joy of the Easter celebration over, I wonder, even though we proclaim this bold statement about the Resurrection each Sunday, does that truth play out in our everyday lives? We proclaim He is risen, but does His resurrection cause us to live differently?
As we know, Peter denied Jesus before His crucifixion and it took him a little while to actually believe that Jesus was resurrected, but when he actually came to believe he changed how he lived. As we will hear at Pentecost, Peter, once he came to believe, preached to the world and to world leaders, even in the face of death, that Jesus was not dead, but alive. Saul was a Pharisee who was persecuting followers of Jesus, but when he came to believe he changed his name to Paul and gave up everything in his life to go proclaim the resurrected Christ to the world.
Does knowing Christ is alive affect how you live your life? Does knowing Christ is alive give you hope for the future? Is the Resurrection more than a historical event for you? Yes, the Resurrection is something that happened in the past, but because of the Resurrection Christ’s light shines today through each of us and empowers us to bring that light to a darkened, broken world. Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” Through Christ we are given abundant life, and we are reminded that we are not alone. Our lives are not to be lived asking what Jesus can do for us as individuals or a community; instead, our lives in Christ are to be lives of action.
This resurrected life that we are invited to share is a life of relationship, one of service, one of fellowship, and it is a life of communal worship. Living with the resurrected Christ means we live a life where we seek to follow Jesus each day and introduce Him to others. And it is a life in which we might even be called to partake in sacrifice as we bear the cross of Christ in love.
We are people of the Resurrection, and we are called to live as His risen body, a resurrected people, as we go about proclaiming, “Christ is risen, He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
Shalom,
Pastor Dave