YOU choose!
Special offer, 3 for £10! Take your pick! Buttons, balls, or bunnies – it’s up to you! Plain, dark, milk? Bows or bonnets? Vegan, paleo, gluten free? Decisions, decisions, what to do… too much to choose from. Yep, you’ve guessed it… I’m talking EGGS (even in the midst of an avian flu induced egg shortage, no shortage of these eggs)! I’m talking commercials, I’m talking shops, talking er… possibly Easter?
We could so easily get caught up with the ‘stuff’ around Easter, that we forget the One who triggered the Easter event… The refugee, asylum-seeking Saviour, who bucked every trend, who critiqued Empire and occupation and the religious authorities around, who challenged the ‘powers’ and the ‘principalities’ of His time.
I’m talking about the One who entered the temple, overturned the tables belonging to money changers… the One who went out of his way to ask for a cup of water from a woman at a ‘certain’ well, welcomed children, embraced those in the liminal spaces, ate together with the ‘othered’ of his day, crossed borders and segregated regions, …time and time again refusing to collude or promote the very systems and structures that demonised, dehumanised and excluded - the ‘us and them’ social trap.
What’s his story? Well… his closest friends deserted, denied and betrayed him and falsely accused, tortured, humiliated, he died, hanging on a cross and was later, buried in a tomb - not his own.
All seemed lost…
Except… except… heaven and earth were battling it out… freedom - yours and mine - was on the line… and then BOOM! New day! New beginnings! Freedom! Resurrection! Life in all its fullness was redeemed, so that we could live life to the full!
So… after the chocolate eggs have been eaten, the boxes recycled, and the feasting is over, what then?
May we all experience resurrection life wherever we are. May we be filled with a hope and courage to move heaven and earth on behalf of others, as if our lives depended on it… in the same way that God moved heaven and earth for us. May streams of freedom, justice, truth and love flow through us all.
Be free to speak out against injustice, free to stand up for the marginalised and victimised considered the ‘other’. Free to transform lines unfairly drawn, borders unjustly erected, mind sets impossibly narrowed and hearts tragically shrunk.
This Easter, choose to live the life that Jesus paid the price for…
Happy Easter!
