So how often do you get to tell the story of someone you know coming back from the dead?
And not just sucking air again. Even Lazarus did that. But in a new form? In a different kind of body as a prototype for future humanity? A transrational frame that defies immutable physics? And is uniquely tied to our freedom in ways that should cause us to shout? Our friends at Legend Church in Cincinnati, Ohio throw a party every Easter morning with champagne and a breakfast goodies. They stumbled across this idea after reading N.T. Wright’s Surprised By Hope:
I think they’re on to something. Why do we take a big, God-sized idea and miniaturize it? Why do we put it in a nice, tidy church hour with an apologetic homily, offer a cracker crumb and a tiny plastic cup of Welch’s, and send everybody out the door with a folded bulletin in their back pocket? Does that feel like the electricity that must have crackled in the air when the disciples saw his hands and feet? And in their “joy and amazement” (LUKE 24:41), I’m sure they didn’t grasp the full cosmic significance and full release from sin and judgment in that blinding moment…like we can with the gift of hindsight. So as we approach this Easter, perhaps after responding liturgically to “He is risen” with “He is risen indeed”, maybe we should ask: “Where’s the party?” And after the obligatory Easter egg hunt, maybe we should gather with friends and family, raise a glass, toast to New Life, and pledge our lives to the One who came back for us.
Dave Workman | Elemental Churches
