Today the Church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Easter is a once both a deeply personal and communal experience. Robert Webber offers the following insight about the Paradox of the Easter message.
Easter is the source event of all the events of the Christian year. It is like the neck of the hourglass. Every event of the Christian year flows into Easter, even as all the events of the Christian year flow from Easter.
Evangelicals affirm that Easter day, like all the other saving events of the Christian year, is a factual and historical day. On Easter Sunday the two sides of the Easter event are to be affirmed. When Easter day is reduced only to a fact day, we intellectualize the event. If I focus only on the evidence of the resurrection fact, the reality of the resurrection in me is removed and the meaning of the resurrection spirituality becomes lost.
There is also a danger, however, in overinterpreting the resurrection event in me. We live in a highly self-focused world in which everything is interpreted in terms of what it can do for me. Greg Wilde, a friend of mine and a teacher at the Institute for Worship Studies, captured the concentration on self that has become a real problem for the church and its emphasis on true spirituality in the following way:
In all past paradigms the self has been subordinated to systems—moral systems, social systems, political systems, even physical systems, like gravity and environmental conditions. In the last 30 years, however, or perhaps gradually since the second World War, for the first time the self has been cut loose to become supreme, sovereign, all-important, a system unto itself, no longer subordinate to any moral code but its own, no longer needing anybody outside the self, no longer needing to agree with anybody to receive validation, and even technology has advanced to the point where we no longer have to obey gravity, or stay above water or even stay on the planet! We can do anything and it has killed us.
While the resurrection is for me, it is not a self-focused event as in advertising that states, “It is all about me, you know!” Maintaining the paradox of both the Easter fact and faith is the key to Easter spirituality. Paul clearly provides the subjective guideline: “You have been raised with Christ…. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1, 3 NIV). So what does it mean to say that Christ has been factually risen from the dead and this same Christ is to be risen in me? What is the Easter message? The answer to this question must focus first on the Easter fact and then, and only then, on Easter spirituality.
Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time : Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2004), 143–144.
This morning I challenged my church-Family to embrace this Easter Paradox of the personal yet corporate Gospel. Over the next 50 days, we will undertake a shared weekly-reading that will culminate on Pentecost Sunday (May 23). After our 50 day journey, we will gather on Pentecost to commission every person in their future walk with Jesus. What does that mean? Every single person in the Family of God is called to service. Yet all too often, we just wander through life choosing or own path and we miss out on God’s best. I believe that over the next 50 days, God will give a clear commission to every single member of our congregation. On Pentecost, each person will share their commission from Lord and the Church will lay hands on each person to bless them as they walk with Jesus down this new path. Our Pentecost celebration will be a deeply personal, yet unifying corporate event of worship to YHWH.
To help us stay focused over the 50 days, on each Sunday afternoon I will post a meditation, Scripture, and a set of challenge questions. I am also inviting you, my blog readers, to join us by posting your own questions, experiences, and prayers.
Meditation
See Webber’s quote aboe
Scripture
Old Testament Psalm 16
Psalm Psalm 150
New Testament 1 Corinthians 15:12–20
Gospel John 20:1–8
Challenge
- Examine your daily habits. How has the Spirit of Christ used the Fact of the Easter message to change you? Your actions? Your values? Your priorities?
- How have you experienced the power of the Easter message—your own personal death and resurrection through Faith? A Healing? A freedom from guilt?
- Do people see the Easter message in your eyes? Has the image of a living-Christ in you helped transform the people around you? The Lost? Your family? The Church?
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