On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

When Christians celebrate Christmas there is some sentiment in the song, “Please come home for Christmas.” There are a lot of warm and feel-good moments about being together at that time of the year. Easter has the opposite vibe, if we take it seriously. Easter is about going, not coming. Sure, families gather at church, at home or perhaps have an Easter dinner out together. There are little traditions like decorating eggs or sharing goodies in Easter baskets. But the main thrust of Easter and its fifty days are really about going.

We get this direction from Jesus himself in the gospel we hear this year. In Matthew’s version of the Resurrection, women go to the tomb to find it empty and as they leave they meet the risen Jesus who tells them to “Go!” They are to go to the other disciples to tell them to meet Jesus in Galilee. And when Jesus meets up with the others he also commands them to “Go! Make disciples.”

If they hadn‘t gone to do what he urged them to do, no one today would have heard of Jesus, much less believed in him. For me the modern question is whether this

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command of Jesus was only for those folks back then or is it for believers now? If we believe Jesus’ desire to speak the good news of God is something we ought to be about today, then Easter really is about our going.

Perhaps we could think of whom God would want us to go to. Do you know someone who is ill – perhaps still suffering long term effects of covid or some other ailment? Who do you know who is suffering from depression, or addiction, or joblessness, or abuse, or loneliness? Can you hear God speaking in your heart: “Go! That person needs my love and I’m sending it through you.”

Some people might resist this Easter prodding because they don’t consider themselves religious. Yet if you know the story of Jesus you’ll remember that he didn’t pick priests or ministers or nuns to send out in mission. It was the ordinary folks – like fishermen or the ordinary women who followed him. These were people who were raising families, who were taking care of whatever trade they plied. And so it is today: if you’re an ordinary person, you’re exactly who God is looking for to go forth and bring God’s good news to those around you.

The means by which we can bring the Easter message of new hope to others during these fifty days are varied. A cake. (That’s a delicious way to show love and concern.) A text. (Not as delicious but compared to our frivolous texting, deliberate texts of care and affirmation can really be transformative.) Sharing our own experiences and how we got beyond distressful moments can also help, especially if we got past our heartaches and disappointments with God’s help. Ask God to help you figure out the best way to reach out. And get ready, get set and go!

Have you been to a sporting event lately or maybe you attended your child’s school assembly? Both events have the same thing in common: they began with the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance. Stop for a moment and remember the last few lines of that hallowed practice. The declaration ends with the words “with liberty and justice for all.” Those few words, and the ones before it, are what makes this nation so great. We enjoy freedoms that few countries enjoy and it is good to be reminded about it from time to time.

At this very moment, a Wall Street Journal reporter is sitting in a Russian jail charged with espionage for writing about the oppressive conduct of a vicious dictator. In the weeks ahead, he will get a show trial and then probably be sentenced to 20 years in prison. He will be joining dozens of other prisoners whose only guilt is that they happened to be in Russia at the time it was run by a monster leader. There is no Pledge of Allegiance in Russia, because everyone is assumed to follow the leader or else.

The picture I described of the American journalist in Russia is being duplicated in Iran, China, Turkey, Venezuela and the Philippines. Billions of people live in those countries without the ability to speak their minds and enjoy the privileges that we Americans benefit from.

At this very moment, the former President of the United States stands accused of various crimes in a court of law. I am not going to render any opinion on his guilt or innocence, as that is for a judge and jury to decide. But I know that Mr. Trump will be entitled to the same protections that any ordinary American citizen is entitled to, which is a fair trial. His judge will not be an employee of the Kremlin and every court procedure contained in New York’s penal law will be followed to the letter of the law. The charges may be dismissed or if there is ever a trial one of the jurors may be one of your neighbors and that person will have sworn to follow the law as dictated by our Constitution.

Mr. Trump will complain bitterly about the judicial process and will rant and rave against the sitting judge. He will use slurs against the District Attorney and claim that this case, like the cases to come, are a “witch hunt.” Win or lose, Mr. Trump is a very lucky man. He will stand before the bar of justice in a country that dispenses justice fairly and equally. The