“ May God bless you with Fearlessness and Courage ”

Easter is not for the faint of heart.  By now, you’ve heard about the earthquakes, the bodies of the dead that came back to life and began wandering around the city, that Jesus was dead …until he wasn’t, the rumors of phantoms, and the Messiah, the political intrigue, the uncertainty about the future …RESURRECTION is always unsettling and unpredictable.  It’s never quite “settled” because basically—you just never know what’s going to happen next or come of it!  And when Jesus is raised from death to life, we’re not just supposed to believe it’s true.  That is, the “good news” is more than, “He is risen!” or even more than personal salvation.  Easter is about a life that triumphs over death. 

In a recent interview online, one of my colleagues offered a blessing that I believe is perfect for Easter people: 

“May God bless you with fearlessness and courage!” 

Such a blessing reminds me that Easter isn’t just a date on the calendar; nor is it a matter of becoming familiar with the unfamiliar details of the story.  Because Jesus is raised—this changes our reality! 

If Jesus is risen, “death” is no longer the end, but a new beginning.  If Jesus is risen, the triumph is not that of the empire or of the religious leaders out for their own power.  If Jesus is risen, rather than simply trying to prove it, or believing it—what does this mean for our lives and for our world? 

Jesus is risen.  This is a decisive act on God’s part.  God not only created the world but stakes a claim to the people and things that live in it.  It means that the “end” is not in doubt but is found in God who is the beginning and the end. 

Jesus is risen.  So, we live in a world that is on its way to becoming what God wills, even if, in the meantime, it’s hard to tell who or what is really winning.  Jesus is risen means God has won. 

Jesus is risen.  So, we are people of resurrection, too.  We are given opportunities to transform the lives of others by this truth that transforms us.  Rather than people who sit on the sidelines, biding our time until the end—we can take up the causes of Christ in the world and bring the Kingdom of God closer, and closer.  For God to bless us with fearlessness and courage means to activate us. 

Easter is not something we observe, celebrating for a day or even a season.  Rather Easter is something that we do, or even become.  A resurrected life takes root in the life that is coming, rather than simply clinging to what we have known.  A resurrected life finds hope in the possibility that the whole world is being saved, is being transformed, is being made new—and we are a part it.  A resurrected life allows us to take up our journey in new ways, to include others, to be freed from what has been.  God blesses us with fearlessness and courage because Easter isn’t for the faint of heart! 

God is winning.  The news headlines don’t see that, yet.  God’s winning never sells.  What it does do is give us life …again and again.  Life is coming.  If you haven’t seen it yet, get ready.  Life is coming, God has said so.  Death and resurrection are just the beginning.