What is Easter?
Sunday, April 08, 2007
My wife got me thinking this morning. She does that a lot. This morning it was about Easter.
There are a lot of things that came to mind as we thought about Easter in the past week - some precious and some mundane. White hats, chocolate, quality time with family, honey-baked hams, colored eggs, liturgy, Passion plays, the Resurrection sermon and the choir lifting up the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.
For us, Easter has consisted of a hotel breakfast buffet, a little fellowship with some fellow servants in Thailand, the viewing of the children's version of "The Jesus Film" in Akha, and the exortion of the online community of missionaries and bloggers as we remember the resurrection of Christ from around the world.
As I had the question "What is Easter?" in the back of my mind, I came across a blog I often read but rarely comprehend. Here, Brian Russell makes a profound observation of what Resurrection Sunday is:
Easter is the remembrance of the fulfillment of the promise which brought forth the fullness of the Gospel - but the response the Easter is missional. The response is the proclamation. Christ is Alive, and He has sent those who have tasted and seen to proclaim His life.
As the liturgy proclaims in beautiful simplicity:
"He is risen"
"He is risen indeed"
There are a lot of things that came to mind as we thought about Easter in the past week - some precious and some mundane. White hats, chocolate, quality time with family, honey-baked hams, colored eggs, liturgy, Passion plays, the Resurrection sermon and the choir lifting up the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.
For us, Easter has consisted of a hotel breakfast buffet, a little fellowship with some fellow servants in Thailand, the viewing of the children's version of "The Jesus Film" in Akha, and the exortion of the online community of missionaries and bloggers as we remember the resurrection of Christ from around the world.
As I had the question "What is Easter?" in the back of my mind, I came across a blog I often read but rarely comprehend. Here, Brian Russell makes a profound observation of what Resurrection Sunday is:
Resurrection creates the Church as a missional movement. The women in this story shift from mourners taking spices to the tomb to proclaimers of the Resurrection Story. This group of women (only the two Mary’s and Joanna are named) become the initial witnesses and servants of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Easter is the remembrance of the fulfillment of the promise which brought forth the fullness of the Gospel - but the response the Easter is missional. The response is the proclamation. Christ is Alive, and He has sent those who have tasted and seen to proclaim His life.
As the liturgy proclaims in beautiful simplicity:
"He is risen"
"He is risen indeed"
Dana said ::
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