Calvin Synod Herald, 1988 (88. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1988 / 1. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD-2-REFORMATUSOK LAPJA Why do you seek the living among the dead? Do not be amazed: you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here. Make the Love of Christ a Dynamic Force Year after year we celebrate Easter. The holiday in the church is marked by special music, an abundance of flowers, women in the old country used to parade in new hats and new dresses, and we have particularly dignified services. But thinking of all this we may have a vexing notion; are we not dressing up the holiday because its spiritual dynamics are weak? For modern man, for us, that is. We faithfully repeat the 2,000 year-old Easter Gospel story but the events of the story do not seem to come closer but rather more remote every passing year. I do not want to examine what our Easter experience was ten or even two years ago. Truly important is this year, now. Could it be true that for modern man Easter has become a "sentimental decoration” -as someone resignedly put it? What is it for us? Maybe we are looking at the passion story and Easter the wrong way. We are trying to go back two thousand years and put ourselves into that world and that situation. Then we uncomfortably discover that we do not fit into it. 1 propose we must do it the other way: bring Christ and the Easter-event into our world. We are too much occupied with examining the historic events of Christ’s passion and death and the "how” of his resurrection, easily missing the focal point of the Easter-event: liberated from the dominion of death, Christ became a living reality to his disciples which transformed them into new men. We firmly believe that resurrection on Easter morn was an historic event. But instead of going back to search, examine and speculate to prove the physical truth of that event, let us rather search and pray for the presence of the love of Christ today for the sake of our world, encompassed by so much evil and misery. If we make the love of Christ a dynamic force in today’s world through us, we shall need no more proof of the resurrection. It will be proved that Christ is the Risen Lord! May the Lord’s blessing rest upon you all. Bishop Andrew Harsanyi The Resurrected Christ If we do not like to get old it is not because our youthful appearance and strength gradually disappear or because we have passed the great experiences and expectations of our life. It is because we know that the days of our life are numbered. The time given to us on earth is running out. "The past gets larger and the future smaller like the sand in the top of an egg timer, until one day, the last grain will have dropped and there will be none left.” We should look at death as a transition from a temporary present to an eternal future. Easter is a historical fact of the Man who was raised by God from death. What God has done for Christ He is willing to do for us too. There is only one condition: we have to identify ourselves with Christ. We can have certainty that there is life beyond death. Christ’s resurrection is the proof and promise of our own resurrection. If we follow Him in our earthly life, in spite of our imperfection He is ready to accept us, to change and transform us - to become perfect in His presence. Who will follow Him in sufferings, will follow Him in His glory. What kind of life is waiting for us after resurrection? We do not know the details. It is enough to know that the life which we are going to be partakers of, will be lived in His presence in eternal activity, peace and love. The reality of resurrection is a matter of faith and not speculation. Christ’s victory over death will be our victory. Let us celebrate with the resurrected Christ, praising Him with joyful heart as His redeemed ones to eternal life. May God bless your Easter celebration with spiritual gifts and strengthen your faith in eternal life through the Lord of Life. Yours in His service, Zoltán Király, Bishop "And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing blessing God."
