Thursday, October 1, 2026
Every year, Christians all over the world gather to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, the most important holiday of the year. This after all, is the day we mark the triumph of faith over fear, of love over hate and of life over death. A Christian will tell you that on this blessed day everything changed because the relationship between Creator and creature, between God and humanity changed forever as well.
The problem is, two thousand years have passed and the grip of evil on our world does not seem to have loosened at all. Certainly not for Christians any more than any other people in the world. It was Christians, after all, who loosed the bloody crusades upon the Jews of Europe and the Muslim (and Eastern Christian) people of the Holy Land. The predominantly Christian country of Germany unleashed the worst genocide in world history against Christ’s own people. Sixty years later, we are witness to more genocides, in the former Yugoslavia, in Uganda, in the Darfur, not to mention acts of terror and cruelty that seem to get worse with each passing year. And yet, despite all that — actually, in a way, because of all that — we Christians still dare to rise on the third day and proclaim that Christ is Risen and death is defeated.
We dare because Christ promised redemption to those who crucified him even as he breathed his last, and then rose again on the third day in fulfillment of that promise. We dare because that promise lives on in despite all the suffering we endure and the wreckage we create of this place of abundance we have been given to share. We dare because in the darkest and most tragic times and places, hope refuses to die, love proclaims itself and faith reaches up for the light of the Son, struggling to bring forth from the ashes of destruction and death the triumph of new life and with it, new faith and the hope that comes with yet another chance, another opportunity to become the people we were created to be, the blessed community God calls us to be. We dare, because through it all, God loves us — he really, really does.
Happy Easter!
Mark Lukens is that pastor of the Bethany Congregational Church, 100 Main St., East Rockaway.
