Eastertide...Living the Resurrection!

The season of Eastertide lasts fifty days from Easter Sunday until Pentecost Sunday, which falls on May 11 this year. I wonder why the church does not seem to put as much emphasis on this season as Advent or Lent? Maybe we have “church calendar’itis” from the intentionality of making space for Advent and Lent? I’m not sure? But, I do find myself yearning for more celebration and reflection in the resurrection and new life! As joyous as Easter Sunday is, one day just doesn’t seem adequate to celebrate, rejoice, and make space to live the resurrection more fully! Of course, we need to live the resurrection all year long, but Eastertide can be a meaningful season to do that more deeply. I also think we “shortchange” Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, Jesus promises to his disciples and us.

This quote from N.T. Wright continues to resonate with me this Easter season:
“So how can we learn to live as wide-awake people, as Easter people?… In particular if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up…. If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering, and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume and in due course bearing fruit… Jesus resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.”
(Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T.Wright)

Wright’s reflection, along with Romans 6 and some other readings, have brought two questions to the surface this Eastertide:
1) What do I need to die to in order to more deeply fulfill God’s calling on my life?
2) What do I need to take up in order to more deeply fulfill God’s calling on my life?

These are lifelong, yearlong questions! But they seem especially relevant to the seasons of Lent and Eastertide. During Lent we are extra attentive to the sin we need to die to. During Eastertide it seems especially timely to consider all we need to take up, plant, water, and cultivate to more fully live the resurrection and represent new life!

I pray that I can give as much intention and attention to Eastertide this year, as Advent and Lent. I would love to hear how the Holy Spirit is cultivating new life in and through you. What Scriptures, reflections, and lessons inspire and challenge you to more fully live the resurrection this Eastertide?!