What's Next?

This morning in our weekly staff meeting during our regular check-in time Jackie Bullen, our Youth & Family Ministry co-director, shared that she is living in the space of “what’s next?” I can easily relate to that in many ways, not the least of which is what’s next after Easter. Following the energy and excitement of Easter, I find myself living in the question “What’s Next?”

As I contemplated that, I was reminded of the following quote about Christmas by theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

In light of that, I pondered, “What is the work of Easter?”

When the cross is bare,
when the stone has been rolled away,
when new life is awakened in resurrection,
when the True Light is revealed as the Self,
The work of Easter begins:
to know yourself as the risen Christ,
to embody the Light as your own,
to bring the Light to the darkness,
to share Light with every thought, word and action,
to boldly be the Light of the world.

While it may appear so, Easter is not the end. Easter is a new beginning. Easter is the celebration of freedom from the tomb. Using the caterpillar/butterfly analogy, it is breaking free from the chrysalis in which a metamorphosis has occurred. Easter is the celebration of releasing the former way of being, and awakening to and resurrecting as a new creature. As Paul said, when you awaken to your True Nature, your Christ Nature, you become a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is what Easter is about.

 

If Easter is to have any meaning in our lives today, we must be willing to allow the awareness of the Christ to rise to the forefront of our consciousness and raise us up into a new understanding of who we truly are. We must embrace the work of Easter, and ask ourselves, "What's Next?"

We must begin the work of aligning our hearts, minds and bodies in the higher vibrational energy of the Christ. We must truly be the embodiment of the Christ in the world. We can do that through the spiritual practices of prayer and meditation.

Meditate on the Christ. Invite the Christ to come into your mind and fill your mind with Light. Invite the Christ energy to come alive in every cell of your body. Imagine that your heart is pumping Christ Light throughout your body with every pulse.

We must be willing to surrender every thought of lack, limitation, and judgment of self and others to the Light of the Christ so that it may be transmuted. We must set a clear intention to be the Christ in the world. We begin by bringing the Light to the darkness of our own thoughts and feelings, allowing the Light to reveal the truth. We must maintain present awareness of our thoughts so that we can transform our thinking when it is not of Truth. We must become the masters of our own thinking.

We must be the bearers of Light in the world that dwells in the darkness of perceived separation and fear. We must be willing to behold the Light even in the midst of what we perceive as the manifestations of darkness in the world. It is incumbent upon us to perceive the Light so that we can lift the vibration of situations that seem to embody darkness. In doing that, we help to fulfill the work of Easter as the indwelling Christ, seeing all from that risen perspective.

We must, through every thought, word and action be the Light of the World. We can no longer contribute to the darkness of the world by thinking, speaking and acting in ways that are not in alignment with the Christ of our being. We must surrender our former ways to embrace the new.

We must proclaim boldly and emphatically, as did our teacher Jesus Christ, “I have come to bear witness to the Truth.” The risen Christ within us, as us, is the Truth to which we are to bear witness. We do that through speaking Truth, thinking Truth, and embodying Truth through actions of love, compassion, kindness and care toward others and ourselves.

Now that Easter, the event in time and space, is done the work of Easter begins. Every moment is an opportunity for us to be resurrected in a new awareness of the indwelling Christ and to begin anew. Every moment is an opportunity for us to choose to be the Light of world. Every moment is an opportunity for us to embrace the work of Easter, and truly say to the indwelling Christ, “What’s Next?” 

Join us on Sunday for our 10:00 service as we explore further what's next for us as we engage in the work of Easter.