LITANY FOR THE EASTER SEASON
Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
We do no need to live in fear.
What God has done in Jesus, God also promises to do in us.
Death no longer has the final word.
Fear no longer has the final work
Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Dear people, please understand the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead matters. It matters for your life now. It means that even in your life and mine, there is no situation that is so far gone, nothing so rotten or that smells like death, that God Almighty cannot resurrect it and make of it a “new creation”. It may require that something dies in the process: dying to sin, to neglect, abuse, envy, desire for power, clinging to material things – in favor of hanging on to what gives life: forgiveness, letting go, making peace, rebirth, a new way of living, life in Christ. It may mean confronting evil where we find it (even in ourselves) and trusting the Spirit of God to replace it with something good.

Here are some helpful thoughts about resurrection from our confirmation curriculum:
Resurrection is/is not…
-Resurrection is not wishful thinking: “Let’s pretend bad things didn’t/don’t happen and that death is not real.”
- Resurrection is not mere optimism: “If we just think positively, the bad thing won’t matter and will maybe even go away.”
- Resurrection is not resuscitation: “My uncle had a heart attack, stopped breathing, and died - but then they got his heart started and he’s alive again.”
(Footnote: someday his heart will stop for good.) Crossings: God’s Journey With Us, Youth Journal, 2006 Logos Productions, Inc. p. 137

Many of you know Debbie Fowler, daughter of Lillian Johnson of Hickson. Debbie was the November Beautiful Woman of Laughter (2011). Not because her life has been so easy. In the past two years Debbie lost her brother Chuck, and her daughter in law, so that Debbie and Rick had their four grandchildren with them for over a year. Yet Debbie points to her experience of how good things often come out of bad, like her son Kenny’s brain cancer as a child, and how he has survived that. Now, together, they use the art of clowning as “La Ditzie” and “Kidder” to spread laughter and cheer, and make people happy. So Debbie speaks about inner beauty as caring for one another. “Wouldn’t this world be great if we just cared about one another.“ I love a story Debbie tells, how when she was a little girl in Hickson, the grocery man (Carl Sall) said to her, “You have a pretty smile!” Debbie says, “I always wanted to smile after that.”

Simple things. Like Jesus words: “Love one another. As I have loved you, love one another.” We can do that. With God’s help, we can do that. Each of us have neighbors – people we live with, work with, people we meet. Love them. Think the best of them. Forgive them. Forgive yourself. Be made new! The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.