Easter is much more than Easter Sunday

Easter is much more than Easter Sunday. It lasts for 50 days. All the way to Pentecost. And during this time, we hear stories of the resurrection and how those first disciples responded. We hear them not to be convinced of the truth of the resurrection, but to be opened to our own experiences of the resurrection, and to take time to reflect on how we respond. This Sunday we hear stories from Luke.

From what some of you have told me there are a whole range of reactions and questions around the resurrection. We are not sure how to understand it. Did it happen? How did it happen? What does it mean? What should I do with it?

We are not alone with our doubts and questions. The stories we have been reading over the last weeks present disciples who are filled with fear and trembling, who run, stay silent, doubt, disbelieve, hide, give up, leave town, disbelieve even in their joy and wonder, need proof, are confused, not even recognising Jesus when he is among them. I’m sure we can find ourselves in there somewhere.

In today’s Gospel Luke says that Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to the mind of scripture. In Luke, this is the key moment. Sure, the Risen Jesus tries his hardest to meet their confusion, questions, doubts, disbelief. In the end it needs more. It needed their minds to be opened to meaning of scripture. The same is true for us.

This is more than learning proof texts and memory verses and applying them to Jesus. You will struggle to find many places in the Older Testament that talk about the need for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. It is more than knowing scripture and how it all holds together. It is more than giving intellectual ascent to the tenants of faith. It is, as John reminds us in his letter and Luke in his account in Acts, about having our imagination shaped by God’s unfailing love. We are made in love, held in love, restored by love. The resurrection is God’s affirmation of the way of love lived in Jesus’s life and crucifixion. When our minds are opened to this, we begin to be shaped by that love, and become witnesses to that love. What does that mean for us at this time?

The next months hold a lot of uncertainty for this parish. In a way we are like those first disciples as we look ahead. This Easter we are invited to opened to our own experiences of resurrection. We are invited as a parish to have our imaginations shaped by God’s unfailing love, and to be opened to how we might live that out in this place without a vicar.

May your ordinary experiences be transformed by the love of God revealed in the risen Jesus. May we all be part of what happens next.