THERE is a new word around – permacrisis.
We seem to live in an age of perpetual crises: pandemic, cost-of-living, war in Europe, international tensions, climate change, environmental destruction, and the list goes on.
It’s not difficult to feel insecure, as if everything is being shaken around us and life’s becoming more and more precarious. It can wear us down and erode our confidence in the future. There are only so many threats of cataclysm we can take.
There was a cataclysm in Jerusalem that changed the world. History was different after the death of Jesus. Nothing was quite the same again. Its impact resounds around the world today in the songs of Alleluias that will be on the lips of hundreds of millions of people on Easter Day. People on every continent rejoicing that God freed Jesus from the catastrophe of death and raised him to new life.
The original meaning of crisis is decision. Crises cause decisions – they force us to choose a better way. In that sense, Easter is a crisis. It calls us to decision. Will we believe in life? Will we take hold of hope? Will we trust that there is a future for us?
The crises of the 21st century need not land us in despair. They can challenge us to turn to the ways of God – the ways that bring healing, make for peace and restore hope in life.
Happy, hope-filled Easter!
