Monday, April 9, 2012

Pastor Matt’s Thoughts…. April 2012

Jesus Lives, Let us Rejoice! Resurrection Sunday


A friend of mine in ministry once wrote, “It all begins in a dark, musty tomb. Before dawn, just as the glow is beginning in the eastern sky, it starts. It is only reflected in the tiny drops of dew resting on the wet grass. No one sees it, no one is expecting it, but it happens nonetheless. It changes the tomb, changes the eastern sky, changes the darkness, changes the dew and the grass, it happens nonetheless. It needs no human hands, no fanfare or audience, no assistance from anything on this earth, God raises Jesus Christ from the dead!”

“Listen, I tell you a mystery..” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15. “We will not all die, but we will all be changed. for this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on the immortality.”

Over the many years of ministry in funeral homes and cemeteries I have read those words. A mystery. A twinkling of an eye. We will all be changed. Listen! Before, we would perish, now, we will last forever, everything a moment ago that was mortal now is eternal. And it had nothing to do with us, but it had everything to do with us. That is, we were not involved with it happening, but it involves us in its change. God raises Jesus from the dead! “God who raises Jesus Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through the Spirit that dwells in you.” Romans 8.

On this Resurrection (Easter) Sunday, we will join with the multitudes all around the world, who will gather to sing, speak and listen for the mystery. We will once again be given an opportunity to be changed forever. The tomb and the darkness, the eastern sky, the dew and the grass will be changed. Those in their Easter clothes, the family in chaos, the couple hoping for a baby, the young and the old, a world in sadness, the woman holding back tears and the man checking his watch, all will be changed.

If you listen carefully for the mystery, you will hear the stone be moved, see the resurrection reflected in the eyes of those around you and feel God raising you up.

Then the saying will be fulfilled
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55) Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ Service, Pastor Matt