Easter at its Best

This year I had the best Easter I have had in years...maybe ever. Starting with a sunrise service at beacon Rock with a groups of hearty Camas Friends folks (The only down side to this was that I had to get up at 4:00 am to make it too the service and I still was late).  Then later an Easter Potluck, followed by worship. The Service just happened to meet all my preferences and I left feeling I had really worshiped, not just watched a program. There was no hype, no children dressed as Roman Soldiers, no special music, just worship...a dream come true. We, of course, celebrated Easter in the singing and Scripture, and the sermon was about the resurrection, but there was a quiet reverence about Jesus' renewed life and some genuine consideration for the implications of Jesus' life and form. It occurred to me that we (the church) spend a lot of time spicing up and beautifying a dead Jesus but are scared out of our wits to hear what the living Jesus is saying or asking of us. We wrap Jesus in laws, traditions, pages of the Bible, our sectarian version of what Christ's message really was, etc. etc. The truth is that such behavior is a way of not allowing Jesus to speak for himself.  It is a lot easier to put one's own words in a dead Jesus' mouth than it is to hear Jesus' call on our lives.  In this service there was ample space to consider these things and to feel the tug of the Spirit on my soul.  Now that's what I'm talking about!