Devotions from Tri-City ELCA Pastors – Pastor Tim of Holy Trinity, April 17, 2020

Christ is Risen! SO now what do we do?

Easter is over, and we have moved on to the “shelter in place” of the week. But just because we have headed back into our new normal everyday lives, does not mean that we should be any less excited or passionate about the fact that Christ is resurrected and lives again!

Jesus is not merely alive on Easter Sunday, but he is alive and living in each of us every single day.

So what does Easter mean to us today? In this world, often times we see the identity of Jesus used in a multitude of ways:

As one’s political goals.
As one’s money-making schemes.
As one’s intent to take advantage of others.
As one’s way generating hate.
As one’s rational for pushing people out of the church.

What if Easter is our starting over point? What if it’s our “New Year” packed with resolutions? If we were to begin again in the ways of grace and unconditional love?

What if we begin life with a fresh perspective?

What if, in our world, we would start over again today?What if we make a list of resolutions, a few notes on paper, to remind us that Easter is meant to change us?

I don’t know about you but most times I need a start-over button. I don’t want Easter to feel like a day that came and went, with nothing else to it.

Think about those early followers in their homes hiding because they were afraid. Didn’t they need to begin again, too?

So Jesus came and said, “Peace be with you.”

And in that proclamation, they were called into something new. As we are too!

So what now? What now after Easter has passed?

Basically Everything.

The day is new, and so is the grace and the unconditional love of God.

So let us live our lives each day in the living light of the Risen Christ.

Amen.