What are the lessons from Easter? The early Christians greeted each other by "He is risen!" And to that the others made what reply? "He is risen indeed ! "
The uniqueness of Christianity can be put into three categories.
(1) Christianity has a living founder, the only religion whose founder is not in a grave somewhere. Because He lives, he conquered death and gave us the hope of eternal life.
(2) As Christians we have a present presence - the Holy Spirit. There are a great many Christians who have never identified the presence of the spirit in their own life. I was speaking in Baylor and one of the young girls said to me, "I study Christ not to find out who he was but to find out who I am because He lives in me." Schweitzer went to Lambarene because of the verse, "unless you have the spirit of Christ, you are none of His." There is the indwelling . . .the scripture saying "you are the temple of the Holy Spirit". . . Present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service. "
(3) As Christians we are instructed to love our enemies as the final process - the proof of our love - for if we can love enemies we can love all others. I have to admit there are times that I find it very difficult to love, but it is a command, not a suggestion.
Easter leads us to think about worship - the awe, the majesty of God. Speaking at the Cove, I ran into my dear old friend Dr. Gerhard Dirks who invented the IBM memory. He is old and fat like men ought to be, and in addition he has that cherubic face that simply glows with aliveness. He speaks very broken English and is extremely difficult to understand, but he has so much to say that we simply took the time because when I asked him, "what is exciting for you now, Gerhard?", He said, "the awe of God." Then he went ahead to talk about the incomprehensibleness of the mind of God which established the DNA..
The reality of Easter brings a sense of wholeness. It turns ritual into reality and moves us from organization to organism. Let me share an excerpt from a letter which a university professor wrote to a pastor friend of mine: "it would be a shame for you not to know how much I have gained and how much more integrated, supported and connected I feel since I have reaffirmed my connection to and belief in the Lord. . . The forces that led me to your church were a desire to have my past and my present connected, to have my farm boy and my college professor adult in the same body. . . My needs for being in a familiar setting are stronger than my desire to be distant from my past. When I hear that familiar song "amazing grace" the past rushes in and fills me up. I see tired farmers who have worked hard all week stand with foreheads bleached by their own sweat and raise their voices with energy that would put a modern church to shame. Then it is that I feel most confirmed, that I feel the emotional support that humans have been unable to fill."
Easter means that Christ is not only risen for me, he has risen in me. "Christ is risen - he is risen indeed!"
