Standing line behind me at a convenience store yesterday on my way to the Men's League study group, the following conversation took place:
Female: "It's almost Easter! I had forgotten!"
Male with great sorrow in his voice: "Yeah, I can drink again!"
She: "Yeah, you can go crazy!"
He: "Yeah."
For many folks that's exactly what Easter means, take up again that which you gave up to become a better person. Forty days of being sober are almost over! No candy for forty days? Pig out! Look out meat market, here I come, sorry fish store, it's steak and fajitas once again!
Easter also means that folks will be sleeping at the parks reserving a place for the big family cookout. If you want to have some fun and frustration, go to Breckenridge Park anytime from Good Friday night until Easter Sunday afternoon. That afternoon is more fun as you try to drive through the park.
I'm not knocking family traditions or celebrations, but like so many holy days we're forgetting the real reason why we even celebrate them. Easter is the birthday of the Church. Jesus' resurrection from the dead brought life to the movement of disciples that lived on in the form of the Church, God's change agent on the earth. Yet, I wonder how many "Christians" want a change in their lives? Someone once said that the purpose of the church was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Many are so comfortable with their way of life that changing it is like asking something horrible from them. Yet, it was this comfort the religious of the day that Jesus came to afflict. Their comfort was resulting in so many being afflicted. Reread the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus reaches out to the afflicted in that sermon and begins a long ministry of showing there is a better way to live.
As we wind down this spiritual prep time of Lent, take a good look at where you are and where you need to be. God stands ready with open arms.
PRAYER: God of the afflicted, speak to us in our comfort zones and call us out so that we can minister to all, the afflicted especially and also the comfortable. We praise you for the healing seen in so many of our churches and for successful surgeries that have occurred. We pray that Your Spirit continue to move through us. In Christ Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a blessed day!
e.v.
