A Glance Back at Easter
Pondering the gift that is “the” Gathering. I hope you’ll allow me to give Easter Sunday a backwards glance (I know it was ten days ago).
Easter is the Holy I Told You So. I love the way the Scripture reads, “He is risen, just as He said.”
If you only attend church on Easter, I want you to know Jesus welcomed you into the assembly, Sunday before last. Oh, for sure. He welcomed you there, with joy.
And He wants to offer you so much more.
He offers you a rhythm of life, where every week, on the first day of the week, you can rush out the door in order to slow your whole life down to the manageable pace of grace. I don’t care how busy you are, I promise you that skipping a Sunday church gathering will not give you space to breathe.
Heading out on that day, carving out that time, is like doing with time what the tithe (or “regular financial giving”) does for your money: give the first fruits of the 10 percent, and that somehow multiplies the effectiveness of the 90 percent that is yours to do with as you please.
Jesus offers you a lifestyle of gathering with certainty around mysteries. And that looks however that looks!
What I mean is this: Some church leaders think they have all the questions figured out, and that’s fine. I challenge you to allow them that. Their certainty does not make them wrong. Other pastors and Bible teachers prefer some mystery, and they can acknowlege not knowing some things. And they’re not wrong.
But all know for sure that Jesus is alive.
In the act of Sunday gathering Christ offers you a liturgy of celebrating wholeness - sometimes we experience instant healing of brokenness, sometimes we lift holy hands (without an agenda…with zero anger or scheming contention) in hopeful certainty of heaven’s perfection laid in store for the time that comes after time.
And I hope you ate some form of ham/pork, ten days ago, even if it was just a bit of bacon for breakfast. Because Easter celebrates the New Covenant. We no longer get to call anything unclean that God has declared clean. This includes food.
““The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’”
This also includes church. This heavenly word refers to much more than bacon (as though the fact that Jesus has sanctified our bacon is a small thing - it most certainly is no small thing!) it also includes the assembly of the made-righteous.
In all its fragile faulty realness, in spite of the fact that sometimes churches miss the mark, you don’t get to call “toxic faith” what God has saved by grace alone.
And I hope you bought some cute Easter shoes. Because you also get to have beautiful feet, as you embody the good news that Christ died and rose again.
He came for the Pharisee in you and me.
And the one in “them”.
That Was One Lovely Evening
Our church hosted a decidedly UN-churchy event:
First of all, it was not held in a church. We set the goal of an artful event, kept simple and accessible to all, regardless of background or present circumstances, yet with a very high bar of talent and (dare I say) professionalism.
Mission accomplished. And I hardly had to do a thing. I had to be at exactly 2 meetings, and one phone call.
It was an evening with the spoken arts, with presenters from Harvest Church. But y’all, this was not your mama’s ladies’ event. It was raw, real, funny, and there was mostly not a dry eye in the place, whether by laughter or by vulnerable poetry and storytelling.
I had the privilege of being asked to emcee the whole night, and if you wonder how that made me feel, well…here you go:
Each and every presenter absolutely killed it. The entire evening was very simple, and because it was simple, it felt professional, while at the same time, the presence of God stirred the whole room. Many of the attendees were not from our church.
We had a sell-out event, with well over 50 seats taken. For our particular venue, that was the capacity. There were only about two empty chairs (come to find out, someone got sick, day off).
There was a harpist, and the room was lined on both sides with visual art - the paintings and photography of 3 of our very own artists. (Harvest Church is weirdly full of full-time artists, art teachers, musicians and creatives).
Until next year, Knoxville. “The Scruffy Church For The Scruffy City” (that’s a whole hashtag, btw) will be back in 2024, I dare say, with the second annual “Seen - Known - Remembered”, an evening with the spoken word arts.