He is Risen!

Happy day after Easter!

We have the day off of class today, so I thought I'd take a moment to try and get some of my Easter thoughts into words.

The first thing that popped into my head yesterday morning (well...probably second thing: the first being something along the lines of, "Ugh, why is it morning already?") was the thought that, "This is why I'm here."

Literally, the things that we remember on Easter and Good Friday are directly responsible for the fact that I woke up this morning in a house in Northeastern, Kenya, in a bedroom where five other girls are also sleeping.

For some reason, it struck me as an incredibly powerful thing that events that took place thousands of years ago are still effecting every detail of my life today. The fact that those women found an empty tomb the morning after the Sabbath set off a chain of events that somehow culminated in me being right here right now and you being exactly where you are at exactly this moment. (Won't it be awesome to get to heaven and see the ripple effects of the things that we did with our link in that chain?)

The other thought was about as basic -- if not more -- but it was a good reminder all the same.

Jesus didn't come to America.

He didn't come to a place that was trying to be politically correct. He didn't come to a place where people were supposed to be equal. He didn't come a place that promised freedom.

Although, I would be one of the first ones to tell you that there are things that are seriously MESSED UP in the States, huge injustices -- and small injustices -- that should not be tolerated but are, attitudes that don't fit with who we say we are as a church, etc, Jesus didn't come to a 20th century America.

He came as a lower middle class son of an occupied people, to a country torn by social, religious, and ethnic tensions, to a time where life was far closer to what I'm experiencing here than what goes on in America.

Here, a woman's voice is worth half of that of a man and her life is worth 1/70 that of a man's, yet He spoke with the woman at the well.
Here, mob justice is more likely to get a hold of you than the authorities, if you get caught doing something wrong, yet He stopped the mob from stoning the woman caught in adultery.
Here the government is known to be corrupt, yet He brought tax collectors into his inner circle.
Here prejudices against other tribes are common and accepted, yet, this carpenter from a backwater city challenged the stereotypes that people held so dear.

So many of the things that Jesus said and did that make sense in an American context were radical acts in His context. Yet, He willing lived in some of the worst that the world has had to offer, and that, to me, makes Easter all the more exciting.

He came. He LIVED. He Died. and, He rose again!

Happy belated Easter!

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