From the Pastor – April 2007

Last month, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary on the finding of the supposed tomb of Jesus and his family. In email conversation with a guy I went to seminary with, he reminded me of a question one of our Profs used to ask. What difference would it make to your life if the resurrection was proven false? 

It’s a fair question. However, the other side of that question is just as important. What difference does the resurrection make in your life?

That question is somewhat easy to answer at Easter. Even those who don’t normally come to church tend to come on Easter. In fact, some of the more cynical types refer to Easter as “Bear Sunday,” because that’s when everyone comes out of hibernation. The need for extra bulletins, the “dress up” clothes all point to the fact that this is a very special day. 

But what about when Easter Sunday is over? What difference does the message of Easter make in our every day lives? Does it change anything? 

During Lent, out adult Sunday School class has been studying “The workbook on becoming alive in Christ.” The idea of our study is to learn what it means to say that we are Christians; to discover the difference having Christ in us can make. In the second week of the study, we read the following radical statement: “The power which raised Jesus from the dead is also our power. It is possible to claim that power and to receive it for the transformation of our lives.”

In order to experience that power, that transformation, we must be willing to be like Jesus. If we are going to find our life, we must be willing to lose it. If we want to be first in line, we have to be willing to go to the end of the line. It is only in giving that we receive.  All these paradoxes are wrapped up in one; if we are to truly experience the power of resurrection and new life, we first have to be willing to die. 

We must die if we want to live in our relationships. We can’t forever insist on our own way if we’re going to value and appreciate others. Likewise, we die to our own selfish desires in order to meet the needs of our spouse. 

To become a Christian means that we die to sin and our own efforts to save ourselves, and we come alive to Christ’s forgiving grace. Growing in our faith means that we die daily to all that separates us from God and others; and experience the exciting new life that living in Christ gives. 

May this Easter you become truly Alive in Christ.

Pastor Tony