For Christians (and churches) that don't follow a liturgical calendar, it's easy to lose track of the fact that Easter is just the beginning. Maybe some of us observed Lent, but generally, we probably just enjoyed the long Easter weekend, had an extra-special Sunday meeting, took new family photos and then went back to work. That's certainly what I did, and I don't begrudge anyone who did the same... but I think our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox, Coptic, Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran or Episcopal traditions gain something from following a regular calendar and books of prayers. Calendars and seasons remind us of things bigger and more consistent than ourselves and our small inner worlds.

The fact is, Easter is just the beginning. On Resurrection Sunday, Jesus is just getting started. Some of the most remarkable displays of what God is like come to us after the resurrection.

Like when two nobodies are walking to Emmaus and Jesus joins them. These guys are B team or C team disciples, one of them doesn't even have a name, but Jesus walks with them, responds with compassion to their deep sadness, opens their eyes to see the promises in scripture, and then allows himself to be persuaded to share a meal with them.

Or when Thomas, the only disciple brave enough to leave the upper room and conduct some business in the city, is struggling with unbelief. Jesus appears to them all and invites Thomas, the one we would love to ridicule, to touch his body and put his fingers into his wounds. Such intimacy!

Or when Peter gives it all up and goes back to fishing after having recently disowned Jesus, and Jesus just makes him breakfast like it ain't no thing. And then Jesus invites Peter to lay down his shame and replace his bad memories ("I don't know him!") with good ones ("You know that I love you.")

Jesus after Easter is just getting started. And the new race of humanity that Jesus ushered in is just getting started. You and I get to start all over new, as a new creation and it's all good and it's all exciting, and it's all only just begun!