We Are the Easter People

We are the Easter people
             The alleluia and amen people
             The strength in weakness people
             The something out of nothing people
We are the Easter people
             The unafraid and unashamed
             The set fee and set ablaze
             The held fast and raised up 
We are the Easter people
             The singers of the songs at night
             The watchmen for the morning
             The vessels of the light
We are the priests and kings of the Easter kingdom
             Where no tear falls and no child wails
             No tyrant oppresses and no crop fails 
             Where the sons and daughters walk barefoot in the streets
             Spilling over with the Spirit like glasses at a feast 
We are the Easter people
             The healers and the builders
             The remakers and the renewers
             The guardians and the gardeners
We are the Easter people
             Despair is not our birthright
             Pain is not our portion
             And death is not our doom
We are the Easter people
             Hope is our anchor 
             Joy is our weapon 
             And life is our true home 

I saw the phrase “we are the Easter people” somewhere last year—apparently Pope John Paul II said it once, most likely paraphrasing my man St. Augustine.

I have hated how Christians are often known more for what they are against than what they are for. We are often known as the “no to this” and “that is wrong” and “we don’t” people. Some of this is misrepresentation. Some of it is our own fault. Of course, there are times to stand against things, to say a bold and life-filled no. But even in that, we should be animated by what we’re for. What is a positive articulation of what we are?

And so I love this phrase. We are the Easter people. It sums up all that is truest and best and most beautiful about following Jesus.

We won’t always feel it. That will, in fact, be the norm. All the more reason to proclaim it to ourselves. Even on the Easters laced with grief and the barely-get-out-of-bed Mondays, the insomniac nights and the in-between moments of gray, this is true. This is true of us, of me, of you. Hold on to it. This is our inheritance:

This is what the Lord says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

- Zechariah 8:3-4

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

- Revelation 21:1-5

Happy Easter, friends. He is risen, and that means everything can change. It already is. Can you see it? The world is being made new and whole and right again. Veined through everything, rivers and rivers of joy.

gloriously awake,

Aberdeen