As Christ followers, fresh from the “Alleluias” of Easter’s joy, resume daily routines, will the refueling of Resurrection Day and it’s news be proven to have emboldened us to live as the proverbial “Easter people”? Or will the gravity and bleakness of empire infiltrate our lives and overtake that joyous message? These are the questions I’m thinking about personally as a contemporary disciple of Jesus facing the age-old tension of living between the Kingdom of God and empire of today.
To state it another way, how can the residual effects of full Church sanctuaries, inspiring sermons and the uplifting music of Easter inject us with a booster shot that propels us to live something closer to the “Kingdom of God” than the anxiety and despair of today’s broken imperial system? Perhaps it’s too much to ask, but then again, maybe not.
The Resurrection bespeaks a triumphal death defeating Messiah who calls us into the fullness of abundant and everlasting life. This is life in God’s Kingdom where the reign and rule of the living Jesus is welcomed and celebrated – Christ is Risen!
In this Kingdom living we set aside the restraints and perilous news of the world, in favor of the ways of the living King Jesus. We are released from the magnet pull of overbearing messages via social media and traditional media outlets. Released to spend time with kindred siblings in Christ and focus on the ways of Christ himself. In this release we feel and affirm the defining identity of our “in Christ-ness” that both calls us apart and sends us forth.
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