Pastoral Thought--April 5

Easter worship was a blessing (I know that’s an understatement but it is true). At Plains we celebrated the truth that Jesus has defeated death once again. Evil tired to control God, tried to force God to submit, and God would have none of it. God was victorious! The love that God has for each of us is so strong that it sent Jesus to the one place that He never went before. God’s love called Jesus to be alone. For as we know throughout all of eternity Jesus lived in a perpetual state of union with God in heaven. They was never a time that any of the three persons of the Trinity were separated from each other. They knew total communion. 

I struggle to imagine what it must have felt like to be totally alone for the first time ever on that cross.

But it happened. It was Jesus’ total act and choice of love. Now that we have celebrated the joy of Easter together the natural next step for us as the church is to consider what’s next? How will we take the powerful message of Christ’s ultimate victory over death and the grave with us into our local communities? How will our conversations be shaped differently in this Post-Easter world?  

For the temptation exists to rush quickly too into these interactions without allowing them to take shape organically. We attempt to control the conversation because we are so excited about the power of Jesus’ resurrection—and that is not necessarily a bad thing. 

Julie Brister wrote these words for us that I believe will be helpful in shaping our Post-Easter encounters. She said: 

"When you’re waiting for somebody to stop talking, what you’re really doing is saying that you want to control the situation. Control is not a good thing. . . at all; [we are not] trying to control what’s going on. Eventually. . . you get people to let go, and to really listen and be in the moment. But that can take some time and some work."

I think that Julie is correct in her assertion. The temptation in our Post-Easter world is to rush so quickly into speaking about how transformational and life-changing the message of Jesus’ final victory is that we lose track of the person who we are speaking with. We emotionally steamroll over them because we cannot wait to tell them how great Jesus’ resurrection is. But what if God is asking us to indeed share the joy of the resurrection but also to slow down and be present with people who hurt and suffer?

For that posture is exactly how Jesus encountered the people of Israel as he walked among them. He gave them space to share their pain and he listened. Certainly he knew how to help them. He knew what they needed to hear. But he let these encounters take shape at their own pace. Because he lived in this way, Jesus both shared the message of the gospel completely and he was able to help them personally. 

I wonder what your conversations today might look like if you practiced what Julie Brister is talking about in your regular Post-Easter interactions?

Blessings

Rev. Derek