“He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!”
This is a familiar call and response and is probably still ringing in our ears, echoing from Easter Sunday proclamations.
And yet we wake up each day to a world that tells a very different story. We live in a world that makes a very different proclamation. War, violence, loss, and tragedy flood our headlines, and if we’re honest, it can leave us disoriented, doscouraged and disillusioned as we try to hold together what we proclaimed on Sunday with what we face on Monday.
So what does it mean to declare “Christ is risen” when the powers around us are visible, loud, and unrelenting?
Jesus Resurrection has ushered in a whole new way of life! It’s not the absence of death; it is the mustard seed of His Kingdom, planted in the soil of our hearts quietly growing into a life of freedom that stretches beyond what we can yet imagine.
To proclaim “Christ is risen” is to acknowledge and practice resurrection! We don’t do that with denial or shallow optimism, but by abiding with Him and gaining a deeper, sturdier, foundational hope that looks honestly at what is broken and still dares to step forward into life, becoming people rooted in love and sustained by God’s grace!
