He is Risen!

Can't believe I left you all hanging during Holy Week!
In case you haven't heard, He is Risen!

So I will quote from my own sermon from 4/15

Here is the question that we are a quisen
What do we do now that Jesus is risen?

As proud as I am of my "Suessian" rhyme, it really is a critical question for each of us and for the church at large.  In an era when congregational life has taken a serious right turn into lower attendance, even malaise in some areas, it is important that we (each person of faith) are clear about what we are called to be and do.

For too long, the 'Jesus and Me' movement has had the star role.  You know, Jesus loves me, I love Jesus.  I am saved. I get to go to heaven (although I'm in no big hurry).  Thanks be to God.  Amen.   This perspective not only guards our faith as personal, it insists that it is private as well.

As we read the lessons from the Acts of the Apostles during the season of Easter, we will discover again that the Good News of the Risen Jesus is anything but private.  The disciples are everywhere telling the story again and again.  It is a story everyone needs to hear, and will want to hear.

For if Jesus isn't healing all of creation, if Jesus isn't a part of God's plan to create a new heaven and earth, if Jesus is only the secret password for me to get to heaven, then all this hoopla over the resurrection is surely wasted.   Jesus was/is/will always be an integral part of God's plan for the redeeming of the world - the whole world - all of it.  Since we have joined our lives to the life of Jesus, this becomes our role as well. 

God has a mission - to save the world - and now we are a part of it.  We are called to be witnesses - not just to some story we've heard in church for years, but to the transformation that has happened within us, within our lives, within our families.

Hold that thought.....more later.