Friday 24 April - Resurrected Community

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday, we read that the scripture calls us to see the resurrected Jesus in one another. We also got an inkling of how difficult that calling can be. The more we read in the scripture, the more challenging this calling becomes.

Desmond Tutu spoke to a roomful of people a few weeks ago, and he opened our eyes to the fact that Jesus tells Mary to go back and tell the good news of his resurrection to her brothers. Jesus tells her to share the risen Lord with them and find the risen Lord in them.

So, the woman who had at one time been demon-possessed is supposed to go carry the risen Lord to the same people who had just betrayed and denied him.

This is a shocking party to celebrate the risen Christ, indeed.

But this broken group of people is the family that Jesus chose to become the church – the place where in the Book of Acts, they start describing their relationships with one another as brothers and sisters.

In his book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Eugene Peterson says, “The more we practice resurrection the less we are on our own or by ourselves, for we find that this resurrection that is so intensely and relationally personal in Father, Son, and Spirit at the same time plunges us into relationships with brothers and sisters we never knew we had: we are in community whether we like it or not. We do not choose to be in this community; by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus, this is the company we keep.”

Brothers and sisters, we remain in Good Friday if we don’t open our eyes and ears to see and hear the risen Christ in one another in surprising ways. If we fail to put on our resurrection glasses, our vision will remain fuzzy, and we will walk through life in a deathly haze.

But if you hear the voice of Jesus calling your name today, believing that with every moment of your life you are to celebrate the truly miraculous resurrection of Christ, then you are called to “be what you believe,” as former Methodist bishop, Peter Storey says.

William Barclay elaborates: “Christianity does not mean knowing about Jesus; it means knowing him. It does not mean arguing about him; it means meeting him. It means the certainty of the experience that Jesus is alive.”

Jesus is calling our names not only to see and believe but to live a resurrected life, being a community that looks and sounds just like the resurrected Christ – not hollow individuals weeping by an empty tomb, but a community of gardeners, admiring and planting grace, faith, and love in all people.
So, if you believe that Jesus was truly resurrected from the dead, where are you looking for the Lord? Christ is Risen – he is risen, indeed, and he is risen in us.

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

Acts 10:34-43

Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ-- he is Lord of all.
That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."


PRAY-AS-YOU-GO

Meditate on this today, as you interact with every person you meet: Christ is risen. Christ is risen in you. Christ is risen in me.