Easter People

Easter People (from April 22, 2017)

Every Easter, and some days in-between, I find myself humming a little song I learned as a teenager. “Every morning is Easter morning, from now on (from now on), every day is Resurrection Day, the past is over and gone…”

This year, my humming began after reading Pastor Cory Dahl’s Faith Perspective article from last weekend. My remembrance of the words and melody brought me back to the person who taught it to me. I looked for her name online, and found this: “Morrison, Tracie M. age 43 of Rosemount. Tracie died peacefully surrounded by love. July 8, 2016.” I looked further and found one of the last things she posted on her Facebook account: “The Lord is good to us. We accept GREAT things! Isn’t [he] cool. It’s Easter!!!!!”

I don’t know what every day of her life was like. I’m sure that when I met her as an 18 year-old, she had plenty of worries about her future. I’m also sure that near the end, as a relatively young woman with a terminal illness, she thought about what she was leaving behind. But, more pronounced than those profoundly normal and expected concerns, from my perspective her life was bracketed by a faith that trusted the power of Jesus Christ rising from the dead! Her voice was powerful, loud and raspy…and, nothing much seemed to change in the way she pushed through life…death…and into eternity.

I suppose that’s the way life is when every morning is Easter morning, and every day is a day to start fresh and new. As Martin Luther writes about baptism, “the Old Adam in us should…daily…be drowned…and a new man should daily emerge and arise…” This isn’t a commentary about the power of water baptism, but about the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried with Him…in order that, just as Christ was raised…we too may live a new life.”

The cross is bare and the tomb is vacant, but neither of them lose their significance unless we deny the power of Christ to forgive and remove sin. Today is a day to start again. Tomorrow will be likewise. Christ died in the past so that we can have a future worth living.

"Good-bye guilt, good-bye fear, good riddance! Hello Lord, hello sun! I am one of the Easter People! My new life has begun!”