I don’t know about you, but my Easter was fabulous! What a glorious day. The weather was beautiful, and the excitement in our worship service was palpable. The joy that those gathered exuded was infectious. All in all, Resurrection Sunday left me on a spiritual high.

Any time I find myself in the position of being spiritually uplifted and in connection with the Divine, I find it difficult to know what to do following such an experience. You cognitively know you can’t maintain that level of joy and wonder found in those moments. They are clearly awesome moments, but we are not made to exist and remain at that high level. It just isn’t possible. We, sooner or later, will come down from the high and make our way back into the mundane we usually exist in. This is our norm, it is everyday life.

So what do we do after the Easter event?

Of course, knowing the biblical story, we know the disciples were still not sure what to make of the resurrection. Yes, the women of their group had told them what they had seen and heard. Yes, Peter and John had told them of their experience of the empty tomb. Yes, the travelers to Emmaus had quickly related their encounters. All in all, they had been inundated with accounts of the resurrected Jesus. Talk about being on a spiritual high!

The disciples aren’t yet fully convinced, but they have been sufficiently made aware Jesus is alive. I’m certain this was hard to come to grips with, it was a lot to take in. Just like our Easter experiences today, we come away with wonder and a sense of euphoria that may leave us wondering, what now?

It’s going to take a while for the disciples to grasp what all of this good news means for them and the world. We, on the other hand, have a two-millennium jump on what should be next. We know the disciples will eventually each see Jesus up close, they will hear his instructions for them to await the Holy Spirit which will direct them. We have no need to wait. What’s next for us is to frankly, get busy! We should be so motivated to continue the witness the resurrection in our lives.

How do we witness the resurrection? We do it each and every day, in every place we go, in every person we interact with. What we do with our Easter experience is share it. We share it when we engage with those whose lives are fractured, in turmoil, and filled with fear and dread. We share the risen Christ in the words we choose to use. We share Jesus in our actions. We share the good news of Jesus’ victory over the worst of the worst, and that resurrection is offered to each and every one of us. No matter where we find ourselves, no matter what we may have done in the past, and no matter how desperate the situation, Jesus will walk each person into resurrected living. Our witness must show this to the world. We must speak life to those who feel as if death is tugging at their elbow. We must speak victory to those who feel defeated. We must speak love to those who experience degradation and hate. We must encourage those who have been pushed to the margins of our society to see Jesus’ resurrection as their opportunity to begin to really live.

When we wonder what we do with our Easter experience, we must not let it die within us. Jesus lives so that we can live. Jesus rose so we can rise. Jesus gave us a new way to live and be, and we must never die.

Friends, I hope you read in my words the effusive joy and unbound desire to share what I experienced this past Sunday. I don’t want to let it slip away and return to my normal ho-hum living. I want the days ahead to count. I want to be infectious with the joy I feel knowing what Jesus has done, is doing, and will continue to do in yours and my future. Let you and me keep Easter going every day from now on. We speak life, we live life, and we share life with every person. This is what Easter is about, and if we don’t share it, we will relegate it to being just another momentary annual celebration. That’s not what Jesus meant for this event to become. It is meant to be lived every single day.

Happy Resurrection to all of you Easter people. You are the reason Jesus got up from the grave, now let’s go live in such a way that others are convinced of how much God loves and cherish them too.

Your fellow traveler on the Way,
Pastor Tom