Easter was just three weeks ago, a joyous celebration of the Risen Christ. Easter is more than a day, it is a season celebrating victory over the death, of fulfillment over loss, of intimacy with a God who will not leave us alone. Clearly, the disciples who hid in the Upper Room had their questions and so do we.

When confusion becomes the norm, when loss and decline are inevitable, and emptiness stares us down so we can’t see our way out, there, we anxiously weep and wait. There is nothing more to do. Our best plans have been interrupted.

This is the church today. This is the United Methodist Church today. And the Risen One is waiting beyond the tomb in a form we do not recognize. We might take the road out of town and get back to our fishing boats. We might look for the one who is reaching for healing. We might let the children come close. We might seek the lame who sit outside the gates. We might meet at the well with those who worship differently than we do, listening and learning. We might not worry about the sin of others because of our own. We might be sustained by the bread and the cup.

The Alive One is not in the tomb, not in the confusion, not in the loss and decline, not in the emptiness but waits for us to listen to be called by name. Those who listen and hear come face to face with the Risen One, overflowing with joy, they will go get the others.