Churches were jam-packed all over the world on Easter Sunday.  Why do they (and we) come?  The answer may not be hard to find in a Good Friday world where many feel anxious or troubled, where the unrelenting news can leave its hearers frightened or hopeless.

Easter is festivity!  It is JOY!  It is VICTORY!  It is a time to celebrate that death and despair are not the last words.  Good Friday and silent Saturday seemed to be the end of hope.  But as Tony Campolo put it: “it was Friday.  The cynics were lookin’ at the world and sayin’, ‘as things have been so they shall be.  You can’t change anything in this world, you can’t change anything’.  But those cynics didn’t know that it was only Friday, Sunday’s comin'!”

In a world often resembling Good Friday, Christians no longer need to live in fear and dread.  Easter Sunday has come, the stone was rolled away and God’s people were set free, no longer held in bondage by the curse of the broken covenant.  In a world filled with so much injustice and tragedy, Easter breaks out like the dawn, dispelling the darkness and declaring victory over evil.  And no matter how often love and faithfulness, peace and justice are bullied and seemingly defeated in our time, they rise again.

So, during this time of Eastertide….and always, let us not side with the cynics or the hopeless.  Let us shout from the rooftops “He is risen!” and celebrate the new life that is ours eternally in Jesus Christ.  Remember, Easter is more than a day or a season of the year, it is a way of life, indeed a NEW LIFE is ours! Thanks be to God and to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!!!