Questioning Easter

"² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ They didn’t know what to make of this."  Luke 24:2-3

 We celebrated Easter with singing and shouting about our risen Lord, but like the women and the early disciples we struggle with what to make of new life on an ordinary day. We sing hope, yet look live in fear.  The disciples saw the empty tomb and were amazed, but didn't believe until later.  We celebrate promise and live limits.  What I'm getting at is that certainty is the opposite of faith.  We celebrate a gift, a path, a direction, a love, an experience.  We celebrate a mystery that is barely expressed in any one account, or accounted for in any one expression. We celebrate a faith that includes both doubt and confidence.

Don't despair.  Do what those first followers did, ask fierce questions:  Who took Jesus?  How can I believe unless you show me?  How could we possibly feed this crowd?  Put those question alongside the celebrations, the stories, the testimonies, and the truths, then take a step.  Take a step in any direction, but take a step.  That's a step of faith.  Yes it is, because it's mixed with all that other stuff, God stuff, life stuff, YOU stuff!

OK, I may not have the whole thing down in a perfect formula.  There's probably a flaw in my argument somewhere, there usually is.  But I'm taking a step into a conversation with you.  I'm leaning into my experience of new life this Easter, of Jesus, of Love and tip-toeing forward.

How about you?  Yep, I sang "Christ is risen..." and I shouted "He is risen indeed!"  I also did all of that with questions, hurts, hopes, opportunities, struggles and so much more swirling in my life.   It's usually a bit of a jumble.

Yet, it's my jumble, my story and because of Easter (at least as a key in a bigger story/truth/promise) my hope.  So, I'm singing, hunting eggs, chowing down with family, and telling my story.  Not because I've got it all together, but because something bigger's got me.  The words I have for that are Jesus, Love, God, and Easter. My experience of God is a Love that won't let me go, a dependable Love.

Now, I'd love to hear your celebrations and laments.  I want to hear your story, struggle, hope, and the words you have for them.  You see, Easter means to me, that there's room for all us to look at the situation and not know what to make of it right now.  Let's have a meal and talk it over.  I'm confident there's more possibility to be found. 

That's why I celebrate Easter.  Why I say "Christ is risen."  And why I'm still wrapping my mind, heart and life around all that means.  Happy Easter.  Christ is Risen Indeed!

   

10,000 Joys in the Love of Jesus Christ, Pastor Dave

4 Easter Tips

     Celebrate Easter making friends with these great tools--four acts of Love. (Read Here  last month's encouragement "Don't Be Friendly!") Thom & Joani Shultz share these in their book "Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore." (Harsh title, great book.)
     Easter is a time to celebrate & share new life. How? Well the first approach is friendship that matters. What's that? It's those four acts of Love, lived as friendship that is:

1. Generous with radical hospitality (go out of your way to make a stranger feel at home);
2. Honest with fearless conversation (dare to talk about things that make you feel uncomfortable trusting God can handle it.);
3. Open up with genuine humility (allow God to surprise you with new things, ideas and people); and
4. Hope-filled with Divine Anticipation (trust that God is doing something exciting even when you aren't or can't).

     God took the sting out of death, put the power in relationships and radically entrusted those gifts to you and me--ordinary people. It doesn't demand special status or skills, just a special God with our willingness to learn and serve.
     At Palmyra First we say Everybody's Welcome, Nobody's Perfect, & Anything's Possible. I believe that. I try to live it. The invitation for us all is to live it.
     Bring a friend to Easter worship. Make a friend at Easter worship. Connect throughout the life of the community as a friend of God in Christ.

10,000 Joys Living as a Friend of God, Pastor Dave

Go Big (with a) Big God

Good News!  Jesus is alive and no one believed it.  Don't believe me?  Check out Luke 24.  Empty tombs and angels didn't convince the women or the men.  It took conversation, community and connection with Jesus.

It's good news that no one believed at first, because that means I'm not unusually slow.  It means that there is hope for us all.  It drives home the point that God's love is bigger than expected.

Everybody came with too tiny expectations.  God came with Big Plans.  I'm challenged to Go Big with a Big God.  That's Easter for me.  It's all the stuff we usually talk about and so much more.  How will you Go big with a big God today?

Round Three -- Knock Out Punch

There are lots of times in life when it looks like evil wins, when bad people triumph, when dishonesty, lying and cheating have the upper hand.  That's frustrating!  These last hours of Jesus' life also look like evil wins.  That's why a bigger perspective on life is important.
     Imagine a boxing match.  Round one was Jesus' ministry.  Evil was being driven back, good was winning, people were being healed, and lives were being changed for the better.  Life was winning over death... light over darkness.  Round two is at the cross and now it looks like evil is back with a vengeance and is winning big-time.  It appears that death is going to have the final say.
     There is still round three to come.  That's the story of Easter, of the bible, of Revelation, of Life... when it looks dark, like a cancer diagnosis, a marital breakup, a job loss or no job to be found, then there's still round three.  In round three there's a knock-out punch to death.  In round three life wins over death.  In round three there is HOPE!
    That's the journey of faith, knowing that in following Jesus there is always a round three.  It doesn't make the second round go away or get all warm and fuzzy.  It does give us hope to work our way through the dark times, the struggles, the moments when we feel hopeless.  It gives us a confidence to share that hope with a friend on the journey. 
     I don't know what round you are in.  I can speak with confidence that round three will come.  There is Hope!  Where are you.  Comment and ask for someone to remind you of hope, listen to your pain, or walk with you/pray with you through round two.  I'll look forward to hearing from you.  

Easter is Messy!

A friend died this week. He was a genuine man with a servant's heart and a playful spirit. His faith and spirit together truly made him a gift. His loss leaves a hole. His departure got me to thinking...Easter is messy.

How inconvenient to have him die! No one asked me if I was ready, or if the calendar would permit, or...well no one asked me. Yet, there it is. Life...and death happen. People die and so do things like dreams, expectations, ideas, friendships, hopes, projects, pets, and more. It stinks when they go. It hurts. It tweaks the world like looking through a soda bottle, nothing looks right.

Then Easter comes--God gently and purposefully shows up. New life, hope in the midst of loss, fresh starts, and all those things that I believe and hold close. What I think is that in the mess and the hurt and the loss and the stinky stuff, God is able to do important work. I miss noticing lots of it God does, but once in a while I see something. That's a gift.

Easter is messy. I'm glad. If it were too neat and tidy, too clean and clear, too removed from the muddle of life, then I'm not sure I'd really know about the gift. Or maybe without the mess, I simply wouldn't accept the gift.

I can't say for sure, but I'm glad for the gift in the mess. I'm glad for some God stuff that acknowledges my stuff. I'm just plain glad...not because my friend is gone, or that anything else is gone, for that matter, but that God is audacious enough to get into my mess and set up shop right at ground zero.

So for now, I'll grieve and celebrate; I'll receive the richness of knowing my friend and wonder how to fill the hole; I'll experience death and life together and know that in the mix there is good and God.

May the blessings and the mess of Easter come alive for you, bringing hope, life and indeed joy.

10,000 Joys in Jesus
Dave