It is Easter Monday.

I feel the weariness of celebrating “The Three Days” and Easter Sunday. I also feel renewed. I find myself singing the songs of joy…”He Has Been Raised” indeed.

And now, we turn to ‘what’s next’.

First, we continue the celebration. Easter, after all, continues for a full fifty days.

But then what? How do we maintain the spirit of renewal, the feeling of being so aware of our connection to God, so aware of the way God gives us life each day. How can we hang onto this feeling?

Of course, we can not. Can not, that is, hang onto the feeling of joy, excitement, and peace. Life gets in the way of that. That reality doesn’t mean you aren’t a real Christian. It simply means, as Paul wrote,

“… when you welcome this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ – even though you still experience all the limitations of sin – you yourself experience life on God’s terms. “

Romans 8

We will still experience all the limitations of sin. The demands, concerns, needs all continue. However, when we live in Christ (in whom we were renewed in our Holy Week and Easter celebration), we experience life on God’s terms. In other words, everything may still seem the same, but in Christ, everything’s different.

Along similar lines: what do we do after we’ve answered a call to prayer? An answer appeared in my mailbox as I received the April 5 copy of the Christian Century. One article immediately caught my eye: “Not about Me: Prayer is the work of a lifetime.”

During the Lenten season we discussed and practiced a variety of ways of praying:

+beginning by bringing our hearts and minds to God

+centering prayer

+fasting

+praying in Luther’s way

+healing prayer

I have mentioned that I was hopeful you gave at least a few of these a try. But our efforts at answering a Call to Prayer in this past Lenten season simply can not end with the dawn of Easter morning.

“Prayer is the task of a lifetime. We only kid ourselves …if we think we have finished learning how to listen to God as God deserves to be heard. The praying soul seeks to be fully present to God, but that is the always unfulfilled task of a lifetime.” (Merold Westphal, Christian Century)

And so, we have only started to answer the call to prayer. The call doesn’t end. Now itt is Easter Wednesday. The celebration continues. We have been made new in Christ. Everything is different. Day by day, we continue… receiving life from God, offering ourselves to God. And each day, God gives us strength and grace to live.

Living the joy of Christ with you,

Pastor Julianne Smeck