Resurrection Sunday
Day 47  -  April 04

James E. Victor, Jr.

RECREATION, REPARATIONS

Happy Easter Day!
~ John 20:1-18

The church that was foundational in my spiritual formation had an annual ritual reserved for children: the dreaded Easter speech.  Children were paraded before the congregation offering their best recitation.  Even youngsters barely two years old were required to spout the simplest but most substantive monologue, Happy Easter Day!  The fear of public speaking and the fright of failure imposed a terror more horrific than the boogeyman.

While transitioning from past to present, a cautious euphoria supplants the dread of that moment.  This unique Sunday is a jubilee; it’s Easter!  As God’s people, we are truly joyful!  The resurrection means a new day has dawned.  We can now embrace a novel way of being whereby fear is conquered, enmity in our vertical and horizontal relationships has been defeated, and death is vanquished ultimately.

Yet, by John’s account, the gospel is erupting in a milieu of darkness.  Herein lies the problem and the possibility of resurrection.  We must not allow the uncertainty that shrouds our faith and hope to overcome a zest for life which evinces itself in the dichotomy of re-creation and re-paration.  Recreation denotes festivity and play.  How work-absorbed have we become to neglect the power of play as a means for centering ourselves anew?  Reparations is a cognate of repair. Similarly, we have abdicated the missional consequence of Easter by shrinking from the difficult work of justice.  To walk in the refulgence of resurrection entails both work and play as the fullest embodiment of new life.

Reflection: As the light of Easter overcomes the darkness of Easter, where in life do you need to recreate yourself with play?  Where do you need to repair the world with justice?