A man was addressing the pastor after the service: "You're in a rut, Reverend. Every time I come here you are preaching about the Resurrection."
I woke up Good Friday morning dreaming of love. Seemed appropriate somehow, in a symbolic way; the gift of God's love was present. God has chosen us from before we were born.
The human aspect was also present. Gratitude and a dream you must sustain are part of that human love from which come the blessings!
Children, God willing; and later grand children, who have an element of the eternal about them. Blessings go on for generations. And all is love, because God chose us in the beginning.
After the joy of Easter alleluias fades, I hope it never does but the first blossom does; we ask ourselves why? Why? Why does the old apathy, the old unwillingness to move return?
We should be shouting our alleluias for fifty days plus. Inertia is the friend or the enemy. Did we really get a blast of the Spirit to get us rolling this Easter? Or are we stalled like we were before Lent ever came along?
Our relationship with God is much like a marriage. We have to keep the dream alive and the gratitude alive. Do we wake up dreaming of love after forty years of marriage? Do we keep the same dream alive in our spiritual relationship with God? Isn't God's love precious? Isn't rebirth worth it?
"A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory." (Death of a Salesman)
"He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back-that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished."
A Christian's got to dream! A Christian is never finished! We are called to be friends of Jesus!
A river of love flows from Jesus, "pouring out the Holy Spirit onto the whole world. From this spring of resurrection power, a mighty river is cascading. It is millions upon millions [actually trillions] of lives who have experienced the power of God in conversion. Your life has been swept up too." (from The Word Among Us Lent 2014)
Can we see ourselves making a loud noise for Christ? Somehow the message isn't getting out to all our families, our parishes, our communities.
One way to overcome inertia is to run. I remember working on a construction crew in the hot summer heat. To overcome the drag of gravity we used to pick up a piece of lumber and run with it. It was too hot to stand around anyway!
It's time we ran with the message of Easter. How else will the world get to notice it?
Jesus Christ has risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
