The resurrection of Christ Jesus, which we celebrate this and every Easter, is something more than the decisive proof of the truth of Christian doctrine. Easter resurrection makes possible a new way of life today.
As Easter approaches, we take a moment to reflect on what seems the most tender of the resurrection accounts found in John 20:11 – 16.
As we choose to walk the pilgrim path to Christ and our true home, we often wonder. What is my calling? What is God’s will for my life? We may even fret and worry and become anxious, because we don’t seem to have an answer, or the answers come too slowly for our liking.
Fondly do we consider the two presidents whom we honor this month. As young men, both were brash. But they allowed life to season them, and being humbled, they became humble. And, by the end, worthy of admiration.
The world has two kinds of people, the disappointed faithless and the disappointed faithful. Since the time of Adam and Eve, the world has disappointed, and, when left to itself, the world will always disappoint. Christmas is the story of God decisively breaking into history on behalf of the disappointed faithful.
Let them grow up, too, with the shout of a King in their midst. There are, in this poor stuff we call human nature, founts of loyalty, worship, passionate devotion, glad service, which have, alas! to be unsealed in the earth-laden older heart, but only ask place to flow from the child.
During a visit to the National Gallery of Art, we had the privilege of learning from Dr. David Gariff, a senior lecturer at the Gallery. We walked among and reflected upon a dozen Nativity masterpieces.
In melodious repetition a larger harmony came forth, instruments and voice proclaiming the God who is God of all comfort beckoning to his people. Handel makes skillful use of “word painting,” a technique by which the music reflects the literal meaning of a song.
I had before me a six-year old’s rendering of a giraffe. There was a tinge of grace in the play, the picture, and the presentation. Such graces shape the heart of a child. Such graces make for a hint of Christmas every day.
All that we encounter, abundance and scarcity, joy and suffering, the beautiful and the ghastly, become meaningful in our sacrifice to God; it all becomes our offering.
