Alleluia to that!
The Easter side of transformation
Easter Sunday - Isaiah 65:17-25, 1 Corinthians 15:19-26, John 20:1-18
Easter Sunday feels like a party celebrating the end of Lent. I’m almost always glad to move on from Lent, so I love the party, and I know the real business of Easter — living into new life — will start afterwards, on Easter Monday.
Resurrection is what takes us from death-to-life. Most of us meet death long before our bodies give out — anytime we have had to let go of something to find health or freedom. New life follows, the same but different. With unexpected looks and possibilities.
It’s a process. Paul talked about it often because for him, it was the heart of the matter.1 When he wrote about being “in Christ” he was talking about the process of going from death-to-life: about transformations in the here and now. Christians focus on them in Lent-and-Easter, but they happen all the time and to everyone.
Lent takes the rap for being the difficult side of transformation. Maybe, but the Easter side is not always easy either. New life can feel awkward, like walking in new shoes — clumsy and uncomfortable. We might stumble. We might even fall. Fortunately, according to Paul, the Spirit is always there — in someone or something — to help us. One day we will most certainly find ourselves walking with ease. Or dancing. Maybe even backwards and in heels.
Douglas Campbell, a Paul scholar who writes about Paul’s understanding and experience of the resurrection writes this:
“Even as Jesus’ resurrection guarantees the completion of God’s plan at the end of the age, the Spirit introduces that ‘future’ into our ‘present’ now . . . by way of our transformed (hearts) and minds. We think (and feel) like Jesus already.”2
It would take a lot more Lent-and-Easters for me to be able to think and feel like Jesus. More than I’ll get to see before my body wears out. But if each one — each Lent-and-Easter I am lucky enough to celebrate — brings me even a little bit closer, I say “Alleluia” to that.
Easter Peace.
This weekend is also the end of Passover. When you have time for a longer read, visit Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s blog post “When Pharaoh's at Your Back and the Sea’s Ahead, What to Do?” It’s a wonderful meditation on dealing with fear as faithful people.
After this Sunday, we don’t hear from Paul in the Easter season. He’ll be back after Pentecost in June.
The notion of transformation is a helpful way to understand Easter/resurrection, and to understand that notion in the context of my own life. Thank you!