Celebrating the freeing, supportive presence of God.  So your experience of God may become your experience of life.  It is wonderful what God can do!

  

 

 

“Easter People Living in a
Good Friday World”

April 16, 2006

 EASTER SUNDAY

Jesus the Christ is risen and is alive forever more! Jesus the Christ will never leave us nor forsake us! Jesus the Christ, who knew more pain and suffering than most of us ever will, proclaims a victory over death and a life eternal. This is the good news proclaimed by Jesus himself.

 We are here today to celebrate this victory and to worship the God of all life who is responsible for it. We worship because God desires our worship, just as parents desire quality time with their children. We worship because we desire to give thanks for blessings that are well beyond our comprehension. We worship because is the right thing to do as we anticipate encountering Jesus the Christ in each of our lives.

This is resurrection day. This is the day when Jesus of Nazareth became Jesus the Christ. His death, as the son of God, cleared the way from all that would separate us from God’s Love. His resurrection brought forth true salvation for all time and eternity. It opened heaven’s doors to all persons who would not only acknowledge—but also practice—God’s way for life. This life is found in the teachings and example of Jesus the Christ.

Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving and joyous appreciation that we now understand the true meaning of life. We are grateful to know that all things in life—good or bad—are only a brief stop along the way to a journey of unimaginable living in the realm of God. Yes, we are an Easter people — people of the resurrection and of eternal life!

The power of the resurrection emboldened a scared bunch of apostles into a winning team proclaiming new life! The power of the resurrection can re-make our wavering and uncertain lives into lives with meaning, purpose, and direction.

To leave here without asking God for an infusion of his Holy Spirit is tantamount to going all dressed up to a marvelous wedding banquet and then—not eating. We must not only be in the presence of the wedding banquet, but we must partake of it. We must ingest its rich benefits for ourselves.

            We are an Easter people who are called to live in a Good Friday World. If Easter is the victory over death through resurrection, then Good Friday is the pain, the suffering, and the tears necessary to life on earth. If Easter is a triumph of good over evil, then Good Friday is the struggle we have with a world which prefers evil and self-indulgence over and above good and self-sacrifice.  If Easter is the spiritual and eternal life, then Good Friday is the necessary journey in a physical and mortal world with the vulnerable and limited capabilities of the human body.

            We leave this place and return to a society that at times seems to have gone mad. Rather than living life to its fullest with God as the center, so many have gotten caught up in life-damaging escape tactics – the tactics made so readily available by our culture and its incessant advertising.

            We live in a Good Friday World. Alcoholism is indeed a disease, but one which is preventable. It is preventable only to the extent that we teach our children and youth, and expose them to the testimonies of those who have experienced broken hearts and lives. We must also guide them to understand that television and the movies do not accurately portray the real story of drunkenness. It may appear as fun on television, but the physical and emotional consequences are never worth the short term buzz.

            The same is true of illegal drugs. We expose our drivers-education students to the hard facts and ghastly horrors of driving too fast or of driving drunk, so why wouldn’t we expose them to the facts and horrors of the broken lives caused by illegal drugs (and even of misused legal drugs). Not talking about something can leave very tragic results making our Good Friday World worse than it needs to be.

            Gratuitous sex and the use of abortion as a method of birth control cause more emotional struggles in our society than is ever told by the news media. Counselors’ and Therapists’ offices are filled with persons trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, having ignored God’s guidance. God is not anti-sex. God is pro-sex. God created sex. God also knew the pit-falls of random sex. God knew the emotional trauma that follows. God wanted us to be free from the bondage of broken lives, hearts, and families.

            Our Good Friday World contains political parties claim-ing God on their side and debasing others as suspect. There is no political party that completely fits the truth or power of God. God is a political independent. God is his own party. All other political parties should continue to work for the good of all humankind, but must refrain from the idolatry of claiming God and negatively judging others.

            In our Good Friday World, we are frustrated by our elected representatives who carelessly repeat the errors of by-gone years, causing more suffering, death, and separation than would otherwise be necessary in life. They spend immoral amounts of money on those things which are not beneficial to life, choosing to ignore the desperate cries of those who are starving, disease laden, and in need of the basics of life. These representatives are unwilling to make the difficult decisions that would improve the lives of their nation’s people, and all the people of God’s earth.

            In our Good Friday World, there are parents who never made the baptismal covenant with God, and who think that just providing food, clothing, shelter, and education is their total responsibility for their children. Are after school activities and sports, as valuable as they are, so much more important than quality time spent in conversation and understanding one another? Are the activities that keep us so busy more important than living out what Jesus has commanded of us for our own good? Involving our children and youth in the life and decisions of the family, even the financial ones, not only teaches invaluable lessons, but causes valuable relationships to grow. Children and youth are less likely to think that, on their own, the outside world holds more for them than life within their family of origin.

            In our Good Friday World, there are persons chasing every rainbow, every new philosophy, every new job, every new fad, in an effort to find meaning and purpose in their lives. Some think that if every single Christian Church does not emulate the pure teachings and purposes of Jesus Christ, then they will not consider Jesus Christ at all. Let’s get real … wherever there are human beings gathered, there will be the problems and disagreements of human origin — even apathy and hypocrisy. But why lose contact with the source of your spiritual and eternal life simply because you seek a perfect faith here on earth? Here’s a news flash for you: There is no perfect expression of faith on earth and that is why this earth was given to us as a training ground to prepare us for our real lives which follow.

            We must live through our Good Friday World in order to be ready and prepared for our Easter Sunday reunion. Why? God knew that we would experience a richer eternal life, having lived the limitations of a human life. The absence of tears, pain, and grief is of little consequence to one who has never known tears, pain, and grief. Heaven would not be heaven without having known something else. Easter Sunday could not be Easter Sunday without having known the pain and suffering of Good Friday.

            And so we are here to rejoice and praise God for such a comprehensive plan of life and salvation. Take a bite out of this morning’s banquet. Leaving here this morning without tasting the intensity of God’s love would be a tragedy. Leaving here this morning without committing the foundation of your life to God’s plan of life, reduces the richness of your living. To live and experience life as God intended, one needs to place a priority on God’s perspective. One needs to place a priority on looking to the future. Jesus gave the example on the cross — going willingly to show there is so much more to life than its daily rigors. He rose from death to demonstrate that eternal life should be the ultimate goal of all. Take a piece of the resurrection with you this morning. Take it in the form of the Holy Spirit, for your journey this week, and return again to give thanks to God.  He’ll be waiting for you and so will I.

            He is risen!  (HE IS RISEN INDEED!)  Amen.

 

 

  

 

 

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