Rest
Remember
Repent
Restitution and Restoration

All of these are acts of Love. Our love for God and God’s love for us made real in the example of God’s risen son, Jesus.

Rest: When God charged Moses with delivering his people out of bondage in Egypt; when God, out of love, called his children to new life, he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). We are given rest from slavery, rest from oppression, and rest in the love that is God—our creator and our deliverer.

Remember: “…I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16). To remember is a blessing. Blessed memory moves us from sorrow to gratitude, and that gratitude is an active sign of God’s love in our lives.

Repent: “For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). Many things can distract us from the love of God, but when we remember God’s love for us, that love can change the path we are on, and that love shall be our strength.

Restitution and Restoration: Peter denied Jesus three times, and three times Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?” Peter’s greatest gift was his love for Jesus, and his denial of Jesus slowly hid that gift. Peter responded, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (John 21:17). Jesus responded to the now-restored Peter, “Feed my sheep.”

On this holy day of Easter, after a season of resting, remembering and repenting, God’s love restores us and commands us to go and share that love to restore all of creation in that powerful, life-giving love. Restored by God’s love, let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the loving power of the Spirit. Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia!
—Michael Bruce Curry

“O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten
Son to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection delivered us from
the power of our enemy:
Grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore live with him in the joy of
his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
now and for ever.” Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer, p. 222