King's Death an Easter Challenge

Martin Luther King Jr. died on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. His was a Lenten death. This year April 4 begins the Easter season. We are challenged once again, 42 years later, to pick up the call to work for justice, particularly the unfinished business of calling out on behalf of people who are poor, to ask why does the United States incarcerate more citizens than any nation in the world, particularly people of color, and to carry out our vocation of seeking a just and peaceful world. These are resurrection challenges!

I write this the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the Saturday when Christ lay in the tomb and disciples were confused and afraid. Walmart promises "Easter costs less at Walmart." What kind of an Easter dare they think they are selling?

This Saturday is a heavy day, and yet a day to prepare for the Easter season journey. "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" "Go, tell the disciples that he is going ahead of you to Galilee."

I, like most of us, am perplexed, unsure, confused. Where is Christ leading us? I, like most of us, live between Lent and Easter, and yet Christ calls us forth.

I am packing my bags this day to head out again, this time not overseas but to various speaking engagements in Colorado and Nebraska. So that you will know where I am:

April 4 (with Burton) Bergen, Rowland, Iowa
April 10 and 11 Bethel, Aurora, Colorado
April 13 and 14 Abiding Hope, Littleton, Colorado
April 17 and 18 Mount of the Holy Cross, Vail, Colorado
April 20 Our Savior's, Greeley, Colorado
April 23 Lodgepole, Chappell and Oshkosh, Nebraska
April 24 and 25 St. John, Alliance, Nebraska
April 28 St. Paul's Grand Island, Nebraska

I go because circumstances warrant such travel. I go because I have been invited. I need to remember that it is Christ who calls us forth to vocations in the public world because the work of justice is not done. This year we remember Martin Luther King's work on Easter Sunday....and every day thereafter. Blessings on the journey.