Happy Easter!

Happy Easter friends! Today is the day that Christians celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Which you probably know, and probably already realize is an outlandish claim. What can I say? It was a one-time thing.

But to be honest, many of the other claims that we make as Christians are just about as outlandish -- that God loves each person deeply and fully, whether that child be Iraqi or American, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist or Christian, woman or man, gay, straight, bisexual, or transgender, rich or poor, and without regard for the any of our mistakes, or, for that matter, our intentional cruelties either. The love of God is not something that we have any control over. It is a free gift.

Equally outlandish is this idea of the Kingdom of God, that Jesus brought and that is still in development -- a place where all people are loved and welcomed and treated with respect.

Given these extravagant claims, and the many ways that still, after thousands of years, our societies still do not live them out, it only seems to make sense that something as outlandish, as unnatural and as unexpected as the resurrection could offer any promise of the life that is to come. And come it will, soon and very soon.