April 5, 2021 — Easter plus One

There is the old saying that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. This year, with Easter coming at the very beginning of April, well it makes this saying that much more true – except the lamb is Jesus. 

Jesus has been raised from the dead – he is the first fruits of the resurrection – and we have had some time to consider our relationship with this Risen Jesus. March is done – kaput. April is upon us, and with April comes not only “showers” but stories about the risen Jesus and his encounter with the disciples. He will eat fish with them at breakfast, on the beach. He will show them his hands and his sides, marks of the crucifixion. And he will pray that his followers will be one just as he and the Father are one. 

So, it is time for a reset as we come to a new month. What goals do you have for your faith life this month? Is this the month to return to your promise to read the bible more? Or, maybe you should be more fervent with your prayer life. How about returning to faithful attendance with Sunday services or bible study. Or maybe there is a ministry you have wanted to help out with but haven’t committed the time and effort. We all know that this pandemic cannot last forever – and soon we will be able to offer our gifts to the church and the community again.

A new month is a great opportunity for new beginnings. In the resurrection, Jesus is a new creation. We then, as believers, are transformed into “new people” – so now is the right time for something new.

Pastor Dave

April 6, 2021 –Easter plus Two

^“Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.  John 20:24

Thomas was away – he was not with the other disciples.  I guess it does not matter why, we all have excuses for not being with the Lord, not being in church, not being present when the big things happen in the family, in our jobs, or in our relationships. We all have excuses. 

The problem with excuses is they usually do not hold up to scrutiny compared to the importance of the event that demanded our presence. In other words, most excuses are poor excuses. This may have not been the case with Thomas, we will never know. But since the disciples were so afraid, so concerned, so confused with the events following the resurrection, whatever kept him away must have been significant – not just an excuse. 

It is one thing to excuse our presence for really important things like: you have broken a leg or an arm, you have been in a car accident, or you have been attacked by a bear. Those are good reasons for not being present with the Lord, with our families, with our employer, or with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I doubt that Thomas slept in because it was the only day he didn’t have to work; or that he didn’t have anything to wear; or that he was attacked by a bear (that really is not a good excuse unless you live in the tundra). 

Thomas eventually had to have a face to face with Jesus – and so will you and me. Think about that……

Pastor Dave

“When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.  But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” (Mark 16:1-8)

You and I often lament about empty things – emptiness is not a feeling that we like. We do not like empty stomachs – we do not like empty gas tanks. We do not like discovering empty boxes in our pantries – and we do not like finding empty mild cartons in the refrigerator. The more I think about it, the more I realize we deal with a lot of emptiness in our lives. Many people, in fact, spend a good portion of their lives trying to fill the empty places and the empty spaces in their lives – but they often make very poor choices and decisions trying to fill the emptiness in their lives. Some choose to fill themselves with food – hoping this will fill them – but it only fills them in the wrong ways. Others look to fill their emptiness with bad relationships, drugs, gambling, alcohol, and the like.

Think about your own lives, think about the things that you have done to avoid emptiness – to fill the voids in your lives.  Now think about the women coming to the tomb on the first day of the week after Jesus, their teacher and friend, had been killed and laid to rest. As the sun was soon about to rise, they were walking to the tomb, and there would have been a great emptiness – a great void in their minds and a void in their feelings as they trekked to the tomb. There was Mary Magdalene, one of the closest friends of Jesus, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome. While the others had fled, while the other disciples were hiding, the women, who had stood of in a distance to watch his agonizing death, these women were coming to the tomb to do what their society expected them to do. The emptiness they must have been feeling and experiencing would be overwhelming.  So to help deal with the emptiness, they were coming to do something that gave them purpose. They were coming to the tomb – hoping it would help to fill their emptiness. We do not like to think of graves – they are not places we think of as alive and joyous. To us, the tomb is nothing but corruption, stench, decay and death. The only sound in a tomb is the sound of destruction – of the cells, molecules, DNA decomposing in the stench of decay. For us, to be placed into the tomb means the body is done – there is no more life – even Dr. Frankenstein cannot re-animate the body. No amount of voltage will re-constitute what has decayed. The women were hoping to prepare the body of Jesus with spices to help to cover the stench of corruption. But the biblical witness tells us that Jesus did not experience any corruption. His body, though placed in the tomb, well, it lay undisturbed, uncorrupted. But it also did not remain in the tomb – Jesus was unleashed.

As believers, we all stand on the cross of Christ – or another way to talk about the centrality of the cross is to say that we stand in the shadow of the cross.  Either way, today we should be focused on the Cross of Christ — not as a means of putting a negative spin on this most joyous Sunday, but for the joy that begins with the fact that there would be no empty tomb, if there was no cross. Today, as you raise your voice to shout “Alleluia, Christ is Risen” – remember the centrality of the cross in your life – and then live into the joy of the resurrection.

Pastor Dave