Risen

Depiction of the resurrection of Jesus
by Bernhard Plockhorst, 19th century

When we reach this week in the Christian calendar, somehow it always feels as we should have an Easter post in What’s the Good Word. It is not that our readers have ever indicated that expectation, yet how could we not comment on the most ____________ (fill in your own adjective: important, sacred, holy…) day of the Christian year? The preparation of such a post always takes some contemplation.

It is that spirit of contemplation that has me thinking about the words of the traditional Paschal greeting, “Christ is Risen!” Within various expressions of Christian tradition, there are a variety of appropriate responses to this salutation including, “Christ is Risen!” or “He is risen indeed!”

Christ is Risen! Think what a variety of emotions those words must have produced over the past 2,000 years! On that first Easter morning, the disciples must have reacted with skeptical doubt and perhaps even terror. What could this mean? Two or three generations later, the words would have been spoken quietly with reverence, and probably produced a sense of wonder and awe among Christ-followers. Following the conversion of Constantine, the same words must have accompanied by wonderful pageantry and joyous celebration.

What response does that phrase evoke in 2012? How do we react? It seems to me there is something incredibly important about the message of those words for our day. We spend our days running from here to there, busily multitasking as we try to get done all the things we have come to expect of ourselves. In the process, what really matters is often in danger of being buried under a mountain of busyness.

Buried. Christ is Buried! Family, friends, nature, our relationship with God, our sense of community...all buried under a pile of cultural and personal expectations. We need an Easter.

As this sacred and holy season progresses, may you take some time for personal reflection on the meaning of Easter in your own life. If you find that your life in Christ has somehow gotten buried, may your contemplation bring about a sense of resurrection within you.

And should you happen to attend church on Easter Sunday morning somewhere where the traditional Easter greeting, “Christ is Risen!” is spoken, may you respond with heart-felt, personal conviction and renewal, “Christ is Risen Indeed!”

Posted by Carman