April 2008
Dear Parkway Friends,
Hard as it is to believe, Easter is over, and we’re well into spring. But wait a minute! Easter isn’t really over. Ecclesiastically, it will be the season of Easter through the first Sunday of May. Theologically, at some level it is always Easter. I remember an Avery and Marsh song we used to sing, Every Morning is Easter Morning,
which acknowledged that because Jesus has been raised from the dead, it really is Easter every day.
And if every day is Easter, then we are Easter people. We are called to live our lives as testimony to the resurrection, celebrating God’s eternal power over sin and death. Often, it seems, this calling is difficult for us to comprehend, much less to fulfill. In actuality, it’s fairly simple. If you’ve been following the various articles and conversations about the transformation process Parkway is involved with, you’ll realize that when we live out our core values and our bedrock beliefs, this is our testimony to the resurrection; this is how we live as Easter people.
While it’s true that we haven’t fully discerned what those core values and bedrock beliefs are for Parkway, I think each of us knows what they should be, even if each one may define them slightly differently. If we live with compassion, respect, love, and generosity, and with genuine welcome and concern for the strangers among us, we are living as Easter people. When we lean on those bedrock beliefs – trusting in God to guide, comfort, protect, encourage, and chasten – we are living as Easter people.
Of course, ultimately what makes us Easter people is our belief in God, and in God’s power that raised Jesus from the grave. When we live as Easter people, we are letting the rest of the world know what a blessing it is to live in God’s gracious forgiveness, mercy and love. When we live as Easter people, we are inviting the rest of the world to experience that same blessing.
Friends, let’s all commit to being Easter people, beginning today!
Blessings,
Rebecca
