"You know, we spend 40 days of Lent 'giving up' in preparation for Easter, but what about after? What does it mean to not just practice abstaining or fasting or waiting–what does it mean to 'practice resurrection,' to celebrate what comes after the preparation?"
They were questions brought to me by a friend. She had been practicing a weekly fast during lent as a way of 'giving up' and creating space for God.
"We spend so much time and energy talking about the seasons of waiting or giving up (with Advent leading up to Christmas and Lent leading up to Easter) but how much time do we spend learning how to 'practice resurrection?' What might that look like?" she continued.
It got me to wondering. Do we spend enough time focusing on how to live? To live abundantly on the other side of Easter?
If words associated with Lent are waiting, abstaining, fasting, contemplating…what words are associated with the time that is liturgically referred to as 'Eastertide?' Could they possibly be feasting, acting, enjoying, playing? What might it look like to 'celebrate' these, to set aside a time, perhaps the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost, for practicing not abstaining, but embracing, not fasting but feasting?
Is there room for this in our churches, in our communities, in our lives? Does it make us uncomfortable? Is it easier to play the role of fasting than feasting, because it somehow seems more holy?
Or is it possible that we could invite others to join with us in celebrating the resurrection by embracing life and following the one who turns water into wine, provides living water, and who is the bread of life?
