Perspectives by Rev. Arlyce Schiebout

Easter People

What is Easter?  How does one explain it? What does it mean for you?  

Bunnies, chicks, eggs, cocoons and butterflies, flowering bulbs are all symbolic of new life and spring time in our part of the world.  They symbolize the cycle of life.  New life comes after a period of dormancy or preparation.  I don’t know much about the tradition of chocolate, but we sure do like to eat it.  

Christians are described as Easter people.  In this definitive act of Jesus’ resurrection, we find hope amidst despair.  We declare that death has lost its sting.  God’s love is stronger than death.  We declare that the world’s powers and principalities do not have the last word, God does.  God’s Word is alive and dwells among us as we follow Christ.  

What matters most to me in this Eastertide and every day really, is how we live into being Easter people.

Following are a few thoughts….Wayne Shaw writes, “God has promised to do for us what he did for Jesus, and he expects us to live like it.”  

James Massey says, “The resurrection means that God has broken into our old human order with a divine deed of utter newness; he has taken that closed situation we call death and shown us that it stands open at the other end–the door torn off at the hinges!”. 

John Stott writes, “no temptation is too strong to conquer by this resurrection power.  No task is too difficult to accomplish by this same power if God has called us to do it.  Are you defeated?  Burdened?  Overwhelmed with worries or fears or responsibilities?  Then think of the resurrection of Jesus.  Ask God to open your eyes to know the immeasurable greatness of his power that raised Jesus from the death, and then as you look to Him in quiet, steady confidence, you’ll find the same power made available for you.”  

Easter is not back there, nor is it out there; it is here and now, and you and I are the proof and experience of it.  Let’s live as Easter people with its attending grace and joy and with hearts and minds that are open to the new thing that God offers to us each day.  We are re-born, re-newed, and re-created each day.  

Awaken me, this new-created day,

 O God of love, of life.

O anxious soul, still wrapped in death, come out. 

Walk free. Walk free. 

 (S. Garnaas-Holmes)

Blessings for Eastertide

Rev. Arlyce Schiebout

Lakeshore United Church

Morrisburg