life of the church – Carnes Family Web

Meet Rev. Cindy Watson

Rev. Cindy Watson is the senior pastor at West Heights United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas. She has served in the Kansas West conference for almost 30 years and is a graduate of St. Paul School of Theology. She is the vice chair of Inter-Faith Ministries in Wichita and I met her as we have served together on the General Commission of Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns of the United Methodist Church. It is good to call her a friend and welcome her to be my guest blogger today!

God’s Word Is Yes!

A few years ago there was slogan, “love is not a feeling, love is a decision”. The whole push behind the slogan was an understanding that love takes commitment and dedication. Falling in and out of love was easy, staying in love was a way of life that lead one to stay the course and see what a long term commitment could mean in terms of the depth of one’s relationship and life.

For Christians, Easter is the same thing Easter is not a feeling on one Sunday a year, it is a commitment to a moment, an experience, a season. For the early Christians Easter became a moment and a promise the end was near and the reign of God was coming. As the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months, the months into years and the years into decades, believers had to re-imagine what Easter meant for them and for the life of the Church.

Each person who embraces the Christian faith has to come to terms with Easter. Christmas is easy. Who doesn’t understand the birth of a baby. Easter, though, requires a walk through the deep ugliest humanity offers: betrayal, lies, false arrests and capital punishment. While it is not hard to admire Jesus facing all that hatred, intolerance and ugliness with grace, forgiveness and love, Good Friday places him in the tomb and the hope and promise of a new day seems to die with him.

Easter is a testament to God’s unwillingness to allow evil, hatred, death and intolerance to have the last word. God’s word is Yes. God’s word is Life! God’s word is Love. God’s word is Grace! Easter can not be celebrated in a day or even a season. Easter invites a commitment to Christ as a way of life, as a way of loving and a way of affirming that despite everything to the contrary, Good will destroy evil, Love wins over hatred and God in Christ will bring all creation into a time of peace, grace and justice. Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed!

** “Christ is Risen” top image from: http://bromattisafoth.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/let-the-alleluias-ring-christ-has-risen/
**Picture of Cindy Watson taken by Scott Carnes, from his archives