After Easter

I am not sure we know what to do with this time after Easter, but before Pentecost. All the patience, preparation, and waiting for Easter is behind us. The fine Easter clothes are packed away for another year. The Easter lilies are slowly wilting away. The cheer of Easter has been replaced with the exhaustion and relaxation that mark the weeks following this holy and busy time. It is almost like that days after that other high holiday, Christmas. Jesus Christ is here. Now what? Today, Jesus has died and been resurrected. Now what?This time after is Easter is known as Eastertide. It is the fifty day period from Easter to Pentecost. It is a continuation of the celebration of Easter. Beyond a one Sunday event, Eastertide is a season of the church that marks the resurrected Christ’s presence with us and his commissioning of us for ministry.  In the same way that the gospels do not end at Easter (except Mark), neither does Christ’s ministry to and with us. In Matthew, we are sent to “make disciples and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” In Luke, Jesus walks with some of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. In John, the resurrected Christ eats a breakfast of fish and bread with disciples. And Jesus appears to a variety of people in all three.This time after Easter is about remembering and living into the reality that Jesus' resurrection and ultimately his ascension do not mean that the gospel ministry is over. On the contrary, for us it is just beginning. And more than that, Jesus Christ will still be with us in the power of the Holy Spirit animating and inspiring us to do God’s work in the world. The resurrection and ascension mark the eternal continuing of Jesus’s work and presence with us.As Eastertide rolls on, let us continue to celebrate the risen Lord Jesus Christ and the continuing of his ministry in our hands.