Many of us are celebrating Easter, Resurrection Sunday, alone this year. We are able to connect to our pastor’s message and the music electronically but those who would be sitting around us are not seen. They are there but not visible to us in any meaningful way.
It makes me think of how we view the Church with artificial boundaries. If you normally sit in a building with me, we think we are part of the same church in a way that those down the street or across the country are not. But that’s not real. We are all part of the Church – a Body - connected by the Spirit with Christ as our Head. Those that are across the world are just as connected to us as my neighbor that would normally share a pew.
We get to experience that reality now in a new way. Through technology, it is just as easy to connect with a congregation three thousand miles away as it is to connect to my neighbor three blocks away. We can share a message and music, worshipping together and encouraging one another. In truth – we are already connected. Now we can see it much more readily.
In a similar way, it is a reminder to me that we are connected to those who have gone before us. Though unseen to us now, they are also part of the body of Christ. They have done their part and now cheer us on to His great work as well. We are connected and owe a legacy to those also that will come after.
Jesus prayed for us - His disciples and all who would follow - before His crucifixion.
The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me. John 17:22-23
As we celebrate His joyous resurrection this year, may we experience the reality that we belong together as one Church. And may He use that unity to bring His love, His resurrection power, to a world searching for hope.
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