Hello, beloveds. Happy New Life Day.
I don’t know how this Easter finds you…
Maybe it is full of joy and hope, and if so, I am so happy for you. You might be up getting ready for church, with your heart at rest. I have certainly had those years, and what a joy to settle deeply into your faith on this day.
However, some of you maybe aren’t there… for a million reasons. Suffering can knock the wind plumb out of us, as can pain, disconnection, the ordinary failings of the church, trauma, big questions around God or truth.
Welcome to the normal human experience of people trying to make sense of Jesus. Every generation has wrestled with these things since time immemorial. This is not an anemic faith; this is faithfulness.
Honoring the day of resurrection has nothing to do with being inside a church building anyway; a fancy outfit in a church lobby has never been a litmus test for a seeking, searching heart.
For those of you at home today, finding new life in Jesus in brunch with your family, or in a long spring walk outside, or in music, or in stillness, or in prayer — however prayer looks for you — this counts as worship, too, even ringed with doubt or fury or confusion.
Regardless, however lost or sad or angry or scared you find yourself this year, know that Jesus insists that nothing is too dead for resurrection. And he understands your pain, because he was wounded before he was resurrected; his scars remain.
While I have no interest anymore in religious systems and structures and hierarchies and rigid interpretations, I will never get over Jesus.
Never.
He is like coming home.
He is risen indeed.
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For those of you on a faith journey…
Maybe your relationship with the church has gotten complicated; or some things in your church aren’t sitting right with you; or something major has happened in your life that has been a watershed moment; or your political views; or you’re having trouble answering the hard questions about the BIG issues.
Maybe you just have a million questions about what it all means.
This is exactly why Evolving Faith’s Sarah Bessey and I teamed up for this Me Course on the deconstruction and reconstruction of faith. We are here to walk you through the wilderness and remind you that it’s not a shameful thing. It’s possible to live out your faith in new, even nontraditional, ways.