"The victory is won, but the battle is not yet over. Eternal life is promised, but we still get sick and die. Jesus lives and reigns, but the cruelty and suffering in the world remain undiminished. In our own lives we confess our faith, yet we often feel trapped in our moral confusions and stuck in our attempts to live holy lives. We speak of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church, while we limp along apologetically, with long faces and sour dispositions. For all of our preaching and teaching, nothing much seems to change in the lives of the people - at least that is how it feels on our darker days. Jesus may be raised from the dead, but we remain still the people of Holy Saturday, looking longingly across the divide that takes us to Easter Day, praying wistfully for the power of the Holy Spirit...
...It is the difference between ministry without power, because everything is left up to us to do, leaving us anxious and exhausted, and ministry filled with joy and hope because the Lord not only lives but also reigns and acts in power for us... My argument is that the resurrection of ministry is first of all about the resurrection of Jesus' ministry."
Andrew Purves
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