Yesterday, Easter morning, we were visiting the church where my son attends. We were singing a song I was unfamiliar with. I couldn't really see the screen with the words on it but I did not let that dissuade me from singing. There was a short refrain in the song which I was signing with great gusto until my wife leaned over and said; “it sounds like you are singing uh-oh." She was correct. I was singing UH-OH which was not quite right. Yet, it got me to thinking.

We look at the cross and the empty tomb and cry out halleluiah and joyously call and respond with; He is risen, He is risen indeed. But my singing of UH-OH started me thinking that maybe a more honest response, for many, for me, might be UH-OH! 

Especially, the purveyors of violence, advocates of materialism, guardians of the status quo, warriors of war, gun-carrying-flag-waving-Americans...for them this might be an UH-OH moment. 

What if the death and resurrection of Jesus is ushering in a new kingdom (a now/not yet kingdom) of God? The one Jesus was always talking about. A kingdom mirroring the heart postures of the beatitudes and not policies of a political party, a constitution, a country. What if the resurrection actually demands allegiance to the kingdom of God and no other—a call to a cross bearing, enemy loving, a nonviolent-turn-the-other-cheek life that champions the cause of the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the unhoused, the marginalized? Would I cry our hallelujah or UH-OH?  

If I look at the death and resurrection of Jesus as more than a ticket to heaven but an invitation to a way of life that looks to Jesus’ life and teaching as our guide does may heart leap or sink? 

As I pause and reflect on my place of privilege in this world I wonder what my honest response really is if the good news of the resurrection includes a deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me component to it?

Do I still cry out Hallelujah or is a more genuine response UH-OH?! What about you?