ON PILGRIMAGE / Gordon B. Yeaton
Called to Be an ‘After’ People

s we reflect on Easter and join in the observance of this greatest of seasons, I am tempted, as I suspect many of you may be, to fall into the ame old ruts. The resurrection has happened, we have celebrated the holiest of holy days, preceded by the darkest of dark hours, and somehow, within a week or so, it seems in the distant past.

I read a story by the missionary Earl Stanley Jones about an African convert to Christianity who changed his name after the Holy Spirit led him to faith. He took on the name "After." He concluded that all things were new and different and important after he met and was embraced by the Risen Lord Jesus. What a great story! In reading John’s Gospel account of the resurrection, I find that Jesus came and stood among the disciples and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side, and then said to them again, "Pease be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

"After he said this . . ." Jesus gives us peace; Jesus shares his peace with us, and then he sends us out. That is what the Easter season is all about—being sent! All of us Christians might consider adopting "After" as our middle name. After Easter, nothing is the same for us again. And while I am slipping into my old ruts and grooves, I must remember that Easter was just the beginning. The Easter celebrations were only the precursor to being sent. Jesus wants me (and you) to get out into the world and do God’s work. I’m not to fall into a spring lethargy after all; I am to roll up my sleeves and figure out what it is Jesus is sending me to do.

David Beckman, president of Bread for the World, once said that the risen Jesus came with assurance of forgiveness to the disciples who had failed him. This gives me hope. For I know that I have failed Jesus and I have failed in my calling, time and again. but now I hear the sending afresh. now, even though I am racked with guilt over past failures and sins, Jesus forgives me and calls me and sends me anew. After Jesus forgives me and gives me his peace, he sends me into my world to live his life, to be his hands and his feet, to be his eyes and his ears—to be the risen Christ to a broken world. This challenges me and frightens me. This requires me to turn my world upside down to achieve God’s purposes. How much easier it would be to settle back into my ruts and grooves. But "no!" says Jesus. "Now I am sending you."

And if I accept this sending, I am assured that the risen Christ will sustain me with persistent grace and resurrection energy. And that is comforting to know, for I slip and slide so very easily! Peace be with you—now get going!