By Heather Mustain
Through word and song today we proclaim that resurrection is not only something that happened to Jesus long ago — it is something still unfolding among us.
In our tradition we understand resurrection not as an escape from the world, but as God’s deep and abiding commitment to transform it. Resurrection life is found wherever love refuses to die, wherever justice rises from the ashes of oppression and wherever hope breaks through even the heaviest grief.
We find resurrection in the spaces where communities choose compassion over fear. When neighbors show up for one another — feeding the hungry, advocating for the marginalized or simply listening with open hearts — new life is being born. Easter reminds us that the power of death-dealing systems — violence, inequity, exclusion — is real, but not ultimate. God is always at work bringing life out of what seems lifeless. The question is, are we awake to it?
Resurrection is also deeply personal. It is present in the quiet courage to begin again after failure, in the healing that comes after loss and in the strength to forgive when bitterness would be easier. The empty tomb does not erase suffering; it declares that suffering does not have the final word. In our own lives, resurrection may look like mended relationships, renewed purpose or the rediscovery of joy after seasons of despair.
As a community of faith, we are called to embody resurrection together. This means being a church that tells the truth about pain and injustice while also daring to imagine and work toward a more just and loving world. It means trusting that God meets us not only in mountaintop moments, but in the valleys — and that even there, life is stirring.
On this Easter Sunday, we celebrate that resurrection is not confined to a single morning, but is a way of living. It calls us to be people of hope, to participate in God’s ongoing work of renewal and to trust that love — persistent, courageous and unrelenting — will always rise again.
As you place your flower on the cross this morning, sing familiar hymns or listen to Scripture, may God’s love stir a resurrection within you.