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This is the Second Sunday of Easter. Most of us who grew up Baptist expected only one Easter Sunday. At the same time, every Sunday for us was the Lord’s day, and therefore a celebration of the resurrection; so depending upon your perspective, the season of Easter, seven Sundays in all, may be more or less what you were expecting.
These Sundays of the Easter Season serve to help us celebrate and focus on the power and the impact of that resurrection morning long ago. Ultimately they remind us of the great gift God has given to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. At the same time, these Sundays should lay before us the responsibility of that gift. Will we live for Him who died and was raised for us? Will we love with the love that has been so freely given to us?
There is encouragement to be had from looking at the various ways that Christ’s love is being shared at Ball Camp Baptist Church. During the week we were hosting the Interfaith Hospitality Network, I had a chance to join our guests for supper. I ate with a mother and two of her daughters. A third daughter was sitting with a friend at another table.
As I watched these little girls eat and drink, I marveled at their capacity to smile. The younger one — not quite two — seemed especially ready to share her smile with a stranger. Spaghetti was the main course that evening. They both seemed to enjoy its flavor as well as its more playful properties.
I tried not to think about where they might be if they were not with us. In a shelter? In foster care, separated from their mother? On the streets? On that night, they did not have to worry about those sorts of alternatives.
Thanks for sharing the love of Christ and for giving testimony to the reality of resurrection. Easter is happening in our midst. That mother and her daughters moved into their own apartment this past week. They face a whole new set of challenges. Pray that they will find a steady stream filled with the love of Christ.
Easter does continue to happen in our midst, yet it is not finished. It cannot be finished — not yet. There are too many hurting and hating people that need to be loved with the love of Him who died and was raised for us.
You may have read this week of the local high school student who knew enough German to say to one of his fellow students who was Jewish, “Kill the Jews.” There may be those who would dismiss that sort of thing as being some sort of isolated prank. To do so would miss not only the cruelty of the remark, but would also ignore the cultural forces that help to spawn it.
First, hate is on the rise. To disagree with someone or even to dislike them no longer seems to be an adequate response to someone with different ideas or notions about life. Intense vitriolic hatred seems to be the way more and more people are responding when they are faced with someone who looks, thinks, or acts in a different way.
Second, the hatred seems to have a desperation about it; as if there is no other way to act toward people who are different.
Ironically, many of those who are thinking, living, and acting in a hateful way profess to be followers of Christ. What is even more disturbing is that for some, hating is not contrary to the teachings of Christ.
Many of the recipients of these increasingly hateful attitudes are minorities. Their religion, ethnicity, or some other factor allows them to fit easily into a small group. Foreigners and resident aliens are also making easy targets. Many of the people that the Bible says should be offered help and hospitality from the people of God, receive hostility and violence instead.
Learning to love others the way Jesus loved us is certainly a lifetime adventure. Every time we think we have loved enough, there is another opportunity to go further in our journey with Christ.
Hatred and violence seem to be quick and easy responses for people living in today’s world. They are not Christ’s way nor the way of those who would follow Him. While it is not always easy and it does take effort, let us seek to live not for ourselves, but for Him who died and was raised for us.
Joy and Peace,
Ed
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