Chaim Potok was an intensely religious man. He was raised as an orthodox Jew in the Bronx the son of Polish immigrant parents. When Chaim was sixteen he read Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and from that moment on he knew also that he wanted to be a writer. At the tender age of sixteen, he began to write. Day after day he would toil at this new passion.

Chaim’s mother however had a different idea. She wanted her son to go to university and become a doctor. Often she would encourage young Chaim: Son, I know you want to be a writer. But I want you to think about surgery. Become a surgeon. You’ll make your family proud. You’ll make lots of money. And you’ll keep people from dying. Chaim listened to his mother’s desire and responded: No, Mama, I want to be a writer.

Still, like all mothers, Chaim’s mother would not give up. So every vacation break from Yeshiva University, she would repeat her comments in always the identical way: Son, I know you want to be a writer. But I want you to think about surgery. Become a surgeon. You’ll make your family proud. You’ll make lots of money. And you’ll keep people from dying. And Chaim would respond: No, Mama, I want to be a writer. Shortly before his graduation in 1950 his mother still had hopes of Chaim becoming a doctor. One more time she took him aside and began to speak her mantra: You’ll make your family proud. You’ll make lots of money. And you’ll keep people from dying…and Chaim cut her off with exasperation, and with great passion he told his mother: Mama, I don’t want to keep people from dying! I want to show them how to live!

By the time Chaim Potok died in 2002 he was considered one of the great writers of the 20^th century, and as he suggested to his mother, he had spent his literary career showing people how to live.

In the month of April as we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection are we not remembering that Jesus came to show us how to live? All too often we frame the story of Jesus’ resurrection as one of the next life. We lift up the resurrection narratives as hopeful signs of the eternal life that it promises. We look to the empty tomb and the stone rolled away and the appearance of the angels as signs of the great promise of the next life. And while all of this is certainly part of the Christian story, the resurrection is as much about this life as the next. The resurrection story shows us how to live!

The women who arrived at the empty tomb were told to fear not. In other words they were told that every day should be lived courageously – as a great adventure of faith, and that discipleship means living with a confidence that God was in them and around them. They were also instructed to go to the Apostles and tell them that the Lord is risen! And God is alive – they were to encourage and inspire those closest to them, their community of love. And finally, the Apostles were instructed to go out to the whole world and tell the story of Jesus baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – that they were to continue the work of Jesus. The resurrection challenged them to have a purpose in life – that they were to be bearers of Good News to a broken and frightened world. The resurrection was not about keeping them from dying; rather, it showed them how to live.

This Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection shows us how to live as well. We so often live with great anxieties and fears. We worry about the future and our health; we worry about the world and its problems; we worry for our children and our families. The resurrection reminds us to drop the fears and remember that God is with us and around us. Fear not!

We are so caught up in our own concerns and problems that we forget to pay attention to those around us. Yet the Feast of the Resurrection reminds us that God has given us a community on this journey of life and the people near to us need our support, our encouragement. We need to inspire our family and friends.

And finally, we can get so caught up in our daily routines that we forget that God has called us to the Great Commission – to proclaim the love of God to all people. We are called to show our faith and the reason for our courage and the source of our hope to a broken world. This is our purpose! In the end the resurrection is certainly about God’s victory over death, yet as much as this; the resurrection teaches us how to live. Fear not! Love your community of faith, your friends and your family! Bring hope to the whole world! Happy Easter my Messiah family.