Tuesday, April 26, 2022
The Rev. Rob Stevens
The Last Word
Do you enjoy having the last word? It gives one such a fleeting sense of power. “Aha! I have the last word. I win!” In our culture the last word is death. But death is not the last word for those who seek a relationship with a living God.
We talk about Christians being Easter People, but what exactly does that mean? As Easter People…we get the last word…right?
Unfortunately, we usually miss the point. We tend to turn a life following God into some sort of contest. A belief contest and we “Easter People” have the right answer and win the contest. If this is our posture, it is no wonder that not long ago the cover of Newsweek was about the Decline of Christianity in the United States and less people are declaring themselves as “churchgoers.”
We sometimes are so concerned with having the last word that we forget the Easter Message—Resurrection and Love are undeniably linked.
Love and the Resurrection go hand in hand. But this world even corrupts our understanding of Love. For example, the famous line from the movie, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Are you kidding? Love means saying your sorry over and over in my experience. Or “I just don’t love them anymore…I just don’t feel it!” Love is not a feeling, but rather a decision a commitment to the relationship, whether that be with God, our partner, or the world. The best definition of love I have ever heard is, “Love means caring more about the relationship than being right!”
This season of Easter we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My prayer is that our celebration is much more that an intellectual assent to a theological truth. My prayer is that it is much more than simply saying, “I believe.” My prayer is that our celebration is a commitment to a life that is characterized by Love.
But what does this look like?
Living like people who believe in the resurrection looks less like fear and more like hope. It is not simple and it is not easy. Anyone can say they believe…it is living like it that has meaning.
As people who embrace a reality formed by the resurrection we become less concerned with whose side someone is on and more concerned with who they are as a human. We become more concerned with healthy whole relationships than with winning the belief contest. We worry less about if God is on our side and attend to the hope that we are on God’s. Easter is the reminder that no matter who we are or where we are on our journey…God is with us.
The great news of Easter is that you and I do not get the last word, and death does not get the last word. The Great News of Easter is that God gets the last word and that word is love. Love enough for you, Love enough for me, Love enough for ALL.