Resurrection People
Dear Friends,
Recently, when John and Cathy Roberts shared their lives in recovery as part of Cathedral ministry with youth, I was reminded of a time when the meaning of Easter came home to me, when Easter Day became every day.
Serving as a Rector in Ohio, my home was in very close proximity to the church. After I had celebrated The Great Vigil of Easter with the Church faithful, there was a celebratory party in the rectory where I lived.
It was about 9:30p.m. when I noticed the lights on in the basement of the church. It was Saturday evening, and I remembered the weekly AA meeting was gathered there.
The tight-knit island community was such that I knew not only the people with me at the party in the rectory, but most of the people in that meeting in the Undercroft. I knew their stories, how they had been to hell before “they admitted we were powerless over alcohol” and “came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” They had “made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God…” to borrow from the wisdom of The Twelve Steps, the tenets of the AA recovery program.
I would call the members of that fellowship, “Resurrection people.” For them, to be raised from the dead was not limited to one day, Easter, or even the Great Fifty Days, the season now between Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost. Everyday, one day at a time, they lived into new life; “having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry the message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs, (Step 12).
If you don’t know the power of Easter as do “Resurrection People,” make an effort to find out more about being in recovery. We all need to as does the world need “the salt of the earth” represented in people who live out their lives in surrendered faith.
“Alleluia. Christ is risen.” Rise with him today and every day. God bless you.
In the Risen Christ,
Allen+