During Lent this year, a group of us travelled with Jesus in our imagination as he walked the road to Jerusalem, and then engaged in the last week of his life on Earth. It was an eventful journey, and one that we have read about many times before. This time, imagining ourselves as companions of Jesus, we experienced some of the emotions the other disciples might have felt: fear, uncertainty, doubt along the way; amazement and inspiration at his teachings; panic, loss, and grief at his arrest and death; gloom and despondency during the Sabbath of grief; anger, confusion at the loss of a body; and then unbelievable, indescribable joy at encountering him alive again, changed as he was. And so we join in the Easter Acclamation: Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! Halleluia!
Now is the time to spread Good News again: Everything has changed, and everything will change, and everything is changing. Yet the way in which this Good News is told must itself change, even though the underlying truth is the same, simply because language and culture change. Metaphors that made sense in an agricultural world no longer carry meaning in an industrial or technological world.
The age of intellectual faith led to great fragmentation of the Protestant churches. It is time now to focus on what unites Christians, and not on what divides us. Jesus calls us to follow him to the Cross, and beyond: the road to resurrection, to newness of life. Christians of all denominations are called to follow Jesus’ way of service to others, the way of self-sacrifice, so that God’s Kingdom may grow. That Kingdom is made up of hearts freely given, not dollars or dogma, nor hate and prejudice. It is a Kingdom in which each person may find meaning and purpose. The need is great: let us all hear the call, and set out once more on the road to resurrection!