Christ is Risen!  Christ is Risen, indeed!  Yes, it is early on Easter Morning, and I, like many of my musical and pastoral colleagues, have risen early myself to prepare for the service or services of the day ahead. Some of my friends are probably already in their places, ready to begin a sunrise service in the open air — others (like myself) are sitting at a piano or computer, putting the last touches to preparations for services that begin at a later hour.

But as I sit here, handling the last details and thinking back over the Lenten season and Holy Week, I think that I have made a choice (or more accurately, heard an answer to a lot of questions): I think that it is time for me to start living a Resurrection life.  I’ve had many years forged in the fire of Holy Week suffering.  I know what that is…perhaps it is truly time for me to learn the meaning of Resurrection.

This all started to occur to me as I did the readings for Holy Saturday and Easter Vigil yesterday.  In my mind (and, well, also on my desk), I could see the icon I brought back from the Chora monastery, the one I call athletic Jesus, the one portraying the descent into Hell before the resurrection, when he went to rescue Adam and Moses and all those who had passed before, but who had not had the benefit of the resurrection.  And that is when it dawned on me — I have been rescued.

I have been rescued by my journey of faith, which led me to the community at the Calvary Baptist Church, which led me to study and prayer and baptism again and licensing and so many other things.  I have been rescued.

It is, my friends, time for me to start living like it.  I choose the Resurrected life, this Easter.