Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Easter is over . . . Now What?

I was thinking about how all my life - especially as a pastor - I have seen Easter services filled with people. Everyone sings and seems to agree with all that is being said and done around them. (I know this is not the case, but it appears to be on the surface.) But as soon as the final amen is spoken something changes . . . Everyone scatters and a less than normal amount returns the next week. This has always been so in my experience.

Does this reveal anything about us? I am not talking about church attendance, but about something much deeper at the core of who we are. Paul says this in Romans 1:18-25:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator . . .

This is a bad scene, but if we are honest doesn't it reflect reality in our world? I wonder how much this explains about us and about the state of our spiritual lives. Are we exchanging God and service to Him for something else?

You see we have gone way beyond church attendance now. Paul shares a powerful remedy for this sorry state. Here is what he says in Romans 12:1-2:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
That is an all or nothing kind of offering we are called to make and it goes completely against the "exchange" game. I wonder if that is the answer for the time after Easter and any time for that matter.

What do you think? Does this resonate with you?