After the Party
You have looked forward to it for a long time. Finally the day comes, the guests arrive, there are good spirits all around, there’s food of course but there is also the telling of stories, many catchings-up on what has been happening. At length it all slows down and finally the last guest leaves. You will clean up with some happy thoughts of how it all went. Then you may start to have doubts.
Was it really that good? Did so-and-so offend that other guest? Did I listen enough? And once they’ve started, the questions seem endless.
It’s easy to start to wonder, as you settle back into your same old domicile, now restored to its customary emptiness—wonder if the party even happened. Maybe it was not a party. Or maybe it wasn’t good as you initially thought it was. Maybe nothing has changed.
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This Sunday you’ll go back to your church and there won’t be the excitement of Easter Day. The crowd will be smaller, the music won’t move you as much, the preaching will seem a little dull, and you won’t have a special party. You may wonder: Did Easter really happen? Has anything significant occurred?
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The truth is that Easter makes everything different again. Raising Jesus from the dead, God restores creation to its rightful place. The risen Jesus gives creation back to us, and he gives it to us the way it was always supposed to be. We can’t grasp this truth on Easter Day, but neither can we grasp it without Easter. Easter is spectacular, but somewhere between the trumpets that announce resurrection and the ordinary life that follows, between the party and the dull next day—somewhere in that in-between space is where the great transformation is happening even now.
He rose from the dead to make everyday life more what it was created to be.
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Out & About: The next Good Books & Good Talk seminar is on so-called Low Sunday, April 27—but what’s “low” when we can think about a magnificent pet cemetery in California in the mid-20th-century? And how can we be in anything but high spirits when enjoying the novel The Loved One by the great satirist Evelyn Waugh? We meet from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, and anyone who reads the book is welcome to the discussion. (Others are welcome to listen.) To find the seminar: Park in the garage in the new apartments (lower level parking is reserved for the cathedral) and when you leave the garage and face the cathedral, to your right is Garrett Hall. The entrance is new, glass-enclosed, and someone will be there. (You can also buzz the cathedral receptionist via the pad at the door; we will hear the buzz.) The following seminar will be on Rumer Godden’s “The Dolls’ House,” on May 18.
I am to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, on Sundays April 27 and May 4, at the 9 and 11:15 a.m. Eucharists.
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On the Web: For many years I have been involved with the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology, which was founded by two great Lutheran theologians, Carl Braaten and Robert Jenson. Our energetic Executive Director, Doug Sweeney, has launched a podcast series of conversations on our continuing desire for visible Christian unity: “That They May All Be One.” The first conversation, about 30 minutes long, is with two other veteran ecumenists, Michael Root and Paul Hinlickly. Here is one place you can find it (although it is likely to be findable in the usual podcast sources): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUECmxdYk4Q&list=PLyj1NGm1Or1E4t5AuceiGmxIBxgaBuKN7