Easter is in springtime for a reason. Springtime is that time of year when new life emerges from the old. Easter is that time of history when New Life emerged from the old. You might well imagine the surprise of the first disciples when they discovered the empty tomb, and later when they had a close encounter with the risen Christ. Peter, in a journal-like comment, rehearses the events in his conversation with Cornelius and his family and friends: "We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead."

We too have encountered the risen …