Hallelujah! He is risen!

In the midst of a despairing world, the Lenten season always arrives right on time, inviting the body of Christ into a process of reflection, lament, and repentance. The past forty days have been a holy time where each of us enters into a space close to suffering, personified through Christ’s sacrifice and crucifixion. Today, though, on Easter Sunday, we emerge and are reminded that at the end of death there is resurrection– that in the midst of suffering there is hope.

In this year’s CMEP devotional series, every scripture, every child’s drawing, and every prayer invites us to bear witness, through the life of Jesus, to the pains of our world. We are compelled to weep with the children who draw checkpoints, falling bombs, and raids on aid trucks, lamenting the innocence of childhood that has been taken from them. In these drawings and prayers, though, there are also images that showcase an imagination for a new world to come. One where children are safe and are not forced to ask,

“Will it be bread or bombs falling from the sky today?”

Easter tells us that each of us has a role to play in bringing about this kind of world, and inspires in our hearts the kind of hope that drives us to action. In her 2024 talk at Christ at the Checkpoint, “Still, Hope” Dr. Lamma Mansour reflects on hope in this vein, saying:

Hope gives us the power to be bold. This hope gives us courage. Our hope declares that the seeming victory of oppression is temporary, and, in doing so, hope defies the arrogance of oppressors who build walls and drop bombs…Our hope defies evil. It resists evil. Christ rose from the dead and defeated evil, ushering in the kingdom and freeing us to join in building it…. Hope draws us from passive comfort into costly solidarity. Hope draws us into a life of love.

It is this kind of hope that Easter brings us. Not passive, but active. Not driven by evil or revenge, but by overcoming evil in the name of Christ’s love.

And so on Easter Sunday, I leave you with this prayer:

God of resurrection:
As we rejoice in the life and ascension of your son, Jesus Christ,
Give us strength to bear courageous witness in troubled times,
seeking to bring voice to the voiceless and compassion to the oppressed
Help us to see each child as our own,
precious, created in your image, and deserving of abundant life
Bring us closer to your justice,
showing us the ways we might build your Kingdom here on Earth
And, above all, fill our hearts with hope–

Hope that transforms and expands our hearts
Hope that celebrates joy and values rest
Hope that challenges us to be more like Jesus
Hope that carries us in our darkest days
Hope that helps us to imagine a liberated world
Hope that inspires costly solidarity.

In your love and mercy we ask these things,
Amen.

With the Hope of Easter,

Destiny Magnett
Programs & Outreach Manager