an idle tale

Yesterday, we heard in the Easter Gospel that the disciples did not believe the women; they thought their story to be an idle tale. Keith named, very helpfully I might add, that there were some in the pews on Easter Day that thought the same thing, this Jesus stuff is just foolishness.

I think the feeling that Jesus has nothing to do with our lives continues to exist because so many of his followers, myself included, fall short of the prayer for Easter 2 by not showing forth in our lives what we profess by our faith.

Believing the Gospel is hard, but living it is near impossible. I want to think of me first. I want to succeed. I want others to pick themselves up. I want to live on easy street. And just about everything I want is completely counter to a faith in a God who allowed his only Son to take on human flesh and die at the hands of the powers that be.

But when we don't live that life, when we say we believe but don't live it out, we make the Gospel foolishness, an idle tale. Grant, Almighty God, that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith.