Today the autumn sun shone warm, we enjoyed a family bike ride along the river and ate too many Easter eggs and buns. It felt great to be alive on this day that our family celebrates Jesus' resurrection.I was intrigued to read Sharon Astyk's description of her Jewish faith as being a communal religion requiring a critical mass of Jews for many spiritual practices. I'm not sure why Christianity, with its roots firmly embedded in the Jewish faith, has swung so far towards the individualisation of our faith.
I'm wary of the mood of triumphalism that creeps into our celebrations on Easter Sunday - particular in the evangelical branches of the Church that I've always been a part of. Sometimes we simply rejoice in our individual salvation "ticket" and fail to see that the Easter story is a powerful call to a gathering of believers to a different life, a difficult life.
Let me just throw some random Rob Bell quotes I've been enjoying at you:
"The way of Jesus is the path of descent. It's about our death. It's our willingness to join the world in its suffering, it's our participation in the new humanity, it's our weakness calling out to others in their weakness."
"The gathering of the church, in a service or worship or teaching setting, is to remind, instruct, and inspire people about being Eucharist ["The Good Gift"] for the worlds they find themselves in."
"The Eucharist is ultimately about what we do out there, in the flow of everyday life."
"Disconnection from the suffering of the world, isolation from the cry of the oppressed, indifference to the poverty around us will always lead to dispair."
So for me Easter has been yet another reminder that this journey I'm on is with others and for others.
