Easter "so what?" (8th Day of Creation)

Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe on me, even though they die, will live. and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) was – of course – the kind of exciting, vibrant, joy-saturated celebration of Jesus we’ve come to expect over the years:

• Crowds of people…
• triumphant music…
• joyful singing…
• festive atmosphere…
• a challenging, hope-filled message…

But that was yesterday. What about today? My book Reaching Toward Easter concludes with an Easter Monday chapter that’s designed to keep the momentum of Easter Sunday rolling into the day-to-day experience of being an active Follower of the Way of Jesus.

That’s where the idea of “The Eighth day of Creation” comes from. Easter ushers in the beginning point of resurrection-powered re-creation. We have the opportunity to be truly alive in the fullest sense of “the life-charged life” only because of Jesus.

So there’s the “pre-Easter creation,” and then there’s the “New Creation,’ in and because of Jesus. Which creation are we going to live into from this point forward?

“If we leave the church [yesterday] as confirmed Eighth-Day believers, then what we’re really doing is signing up to join Jesus in the re-creation business.” (p. 136)

Easter morning at fpcBrandon

SO-WHAT? In her Easter message at First Presbyterian Church, Rebekah put it something like this. “The details in the Gospel accounts may vary, but everyone agrees that something remarkable happened, something amazing, and that the tomb was empty; the fact of resurrection completely transformed the followers of Jesus” (link to the Easter sermon podcast here).

Simply put, that’s the “So-What?” question in front of us this morning. Is the same enthusiasm, wonder, excitement, passion and sense of celebration we experienced at church on Easter morning going to animate the way that we live forward from this point on?

“Once Resurrection Day initiated the new order Jesus moved on, because in part-two of the plan the responsibility passed to, and remains with, his followers.” (p. 136)

So I’d like this short blog-post to leave us with the following thought; it’s the way Reaching Toward Easter concluded: “We’re no longer spectators. We’re now participants in the new creation. If our journey through Lent together has prepared us for anything, then I pray it has prepared us for this.”

We’re no longer spectators. We’re now participants in the new creation. If our journey through lent together has prepared us for anything, then I pray it has prepared us for this.

- DEREK