Easter is a great day at Springwater, a day of gathering and celebration, because our Savior is not dead, but risen from the grave. We dress up, eat breakfast together, enjoy special music in worship. We joyfully greet each other with the words, "Christ is risen!" and respond in confidence, "He is risen indeed!" For today, at least, we are convinced by the good news that love defeats death. But Easter is just one of many special days, unless it makes a difference in how we live, otherwise it's nothing more than an excuse for fresh spring clothes and lovely flowers and ham dinner.

Reading the gospel accounts of the first Easter, one notices that there is a singular lack of partying going on. Even the tomb-side joy is ambiguous, mixed as it is with fear and confusion. In the graveyard, disciples frantically run to and fro, guards are paralyzed with fear, women run into gardeners and men bonk their heads on the tomb's door lintel. It's chaos! Joy, yes, but tempered by wonderment, too-good-to-be-true, confusion, and fear as everyone tries to make sense of the suspension of the natural laws of life and death. What are they supposed to believe? What are they supposed to do?

Jesus lets the women know with his greeting: "Chairete." This is usually translated as, "Greetings!" but how could anyone, dead for three days, think "Greetings" is what the mourners want to hear? The Greek grammar doesn't agree it's a greeting, it's an imperative statement-a command. The first word out of the resurrected Jesus' mouth is the command, "Rejoice!" Which the women do. After they worship, Jesus tells them what to do. "Stop being afraid. Go to my brothers" (notice it's not "disciples" as the angel says, it's "brothers," as if all the denial, abandonment, betrayal is forgiven), "Go to my brothers," he says, "and tell them to go back to Galilee." You remember Galilee-where Jesus spent his ministry in Matthew. Jesus asks the disciples to continue his ministry, essentially, "Get back to work."

Is that the implication, the "so what?" of the resurrection-get back to work? It sounds so much like what my old boss used to say at the end of company meetings. "Get back to work," he'd say fondly, and we'd hustle off. But I'm your pastor, and by virtue of my seminary degree, I can give you a four-part harmony explanation of the theology of the Christian experience as a sacramental and baptismal union with Christ-with full orchestral accompaniment, dancers, sequins, and an all-star cast. But it's Easter Sunday, we all know the kids are toked up on sugar, and we just want to know what the resurrection has to do with us. So I'm going to make this simple. People who are serious about the resurrection act like it.

I often hear people say, "I'm spiritual, I'm not religious." That always makes me feel uncomfortable, because it sounds as if the speaker is trying to justify something, and I'm never quite sure what. Perhaps it's that they've never been able to separate the Crusades from the person of God. Or it's their perception that "religion" is used for sordid political gain. Or maybe they've never done the work of sorting out what they heard as children. Social trend watchers explain this as commitment adverse people who avoid like the plague being held accountable. God's a good idea, these folks say, as long as God makes no requirements of me, doesn't expect me to show up regularly, doesn't ask me to make financial contributions or cut into my sporting events and hobbies. Maybe you don't want to hear what the resurrection has to do with you, because this is one of two Sundays we'll see you in 2005. This might make you feel uncomfortable, but the resurrection does make requirements of us. But only because God wants us to live while we are alive.

Think "Terry Shiavo." If you haven't heard of Terry Shiavo, you are more out of touch with current events than even me. This poor woman's situation has been agonized over and rehashed in the public media for weeks now, while her parents and husband duke it out using every legal device known to humanity. Attorneys and journalists earn a living on her story while she hovers between living and dying. That she is breathing no one disputes. That she can blink and make primitive responses to stimuli no one disputes. But whether this is "living" is the contention. Ask anyone who has been in a hospital or nursing home for an extended period whether this is "living" or just getting by until they can get out.

Christians who ignore the implications of the resurrection for their lives may as well be in a spiritual persistent vegetative state. Sunday-only faith (only if it's not too inconvenient) is the spiritual equivalent of a stomach feeding tube. You're getting by, but it's not really living. You can blink and make primitive responses, but there's no relationship, no growth, no transformation, no giving to others. Resurrection life isn't about showing up on Sunday and living by socially-accepted rules the rest of the week. Resurrection life is about relationship with God, life in community, mission in the world. This means face time with God (prayer, study, silence). It also means willingness to commit to skin-on time in the community of faith and mission. That's what Jesus means when he says, "Tell my brothers (and sisters) to meet me in Galilee."

The implication of resurrection is ethical living. To live ethically is to let your actions fit your values. Not just "put your money where your mouth is," ethical living means putting hands and feet to compassion--and relationship to feeding the hungry. Respectful treatment toward people you help. Willingness to learn from people not like you. Hearing with grace for the thousandth time the story that Grandpa loves to tell. Patiently allowing the other person to learn at their own pace. Willingness to not be right all the time. Working for the good of the whole, rather than proving your point. Foregoing your favorite TV show to drive the neighbor to the doctor.

After the rigors of Lent and the dreariness of winter, we are so happy to see Easter arrive that we run to meet it. The news we've been dying to hear-that death is not the end of the story, that love is stronger even than death-this good news is the hope that keeps us going. But unless the saving life, death, and resurrection of the Christ becomes our life story, we may as well stick to wondering whether sweet potatoes would go well with the ham this year and what to do with all the leftover hard-cooked eggs. It's only a story if we ourselves are not changed by the earth-shaking events of the first Easter.

The risen Christ's first words to us are a command. "Rejoice! Then get back to whatever is Galilee for you, and I'll meet you there." Celebrate, but be transformed. Easter means we're not in the business of success, we don't have to depend on what we accomplish or what we can buy in order to be loveable. Easter means we're not stuck with our discouragements, that our failures don't have the last word about our value, that we don't need to be ruled by distractions. Be transformed.

Listen to how The Message translates Colossians 3:1-4: "If you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ-that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life-even though invisible to spectators-is with Christ in God. He is your life. Friends, the words of the resurrected Christ still apply to us: "Rejoice together, then get back to work together." He'll meet us there. Alleluia! Amen.