Easter Day

Scripture: Col 3:1-4

Colossians 3:1–4 NRSV

1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Easter Sunday - Raised to New Life

04.09.2023

Not as planned

It never goes quite as planned.

I received an email this week from a student working on becoming a pastor here in Kentucky. She was excited about Holy Week plans with her church when COVID hit out of nowhere, so she has been in quarantine all week. I never met her in person, so I don’t know if she was the type of person who would have thrown a pity party for herself or looked to God immediately for a new direction. I suspect it was more of the latter because she had emailed other pastors and me looking for prayer requests for us and our churches. Rather than focus on her ruined plans, she saw an opportunity to pray for others. She took that opportunity, invested in it, and grew it into a reality. It reminds me of one of my favorite hymns we sang two weeks ago - “Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” In one of the verses, it says:

“4 Come, ye weary, heavy laden,

lost and ruined by the fall;

if you tarry till you're better,

you will never come at all.”

She didn’t wait until she was better. Instead, she started the prayer meeting off while still needing prayer.

I pray that she enjoys Easter with her friends and family and that her care for others pays off and keeps them healthy.

I know COVID is a curse word to many of us, and we never want to hear it again. And many other words and phrases completely ruin our plans: Flat tire. Flight Delays. Broken HVAC. Plumbing Leak. Power Outage. Flood. Hurricane. Tornado.

There are entire towns wiped off the map years ago that have still not recovered, and some may never recover. Those Easter celebrations were moved permanently, and some are missing people at the table. Those moments can be incredibly frustrating and sometimes just inevitable. And we have a choice every time our plans are turned upside down. Will we throw ourselves a pity party or look to God for redirection?

Christ is our life. Nothing else will satisfy.

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Satisfaction

Paul’s letter to the Colossians is about finding Hope in circumstances that are not ideal. It was a struggle for the first Christians, and it is still a struggle for us. In the Roman Empire, wealth was the way to power, and the livelihoods of everyone under the powerful were ruled by their satisfaction. Poor service often costed servants their jobs and sometimes their lives. They had to know who was around them at all times and be careful to satisfy the rich and powerful.

In my lifetime, I have seen a change in those practices. In our communities, it still makes a difference when powerful people do not get what they want. But influential people must also contend with the crowd's voice and learn to lead them or be run over by them as they follow someone else. As individuals, we can think through things critically, but as the crowd, we react. The crowd runs hot or cold and often appears suddenly at a time and place of disruption in the community, drawing attention to something that needs attention, good or bad.

We have seen the crowd's appearance in recent years in violent protests, international attacks, and demonstrations of hate. But we have also seen it in our community and worldwide in outpourings of faith, love, worship, and peace. We have experienced the waves in small personal ways that Jesus experienced in all of His earthly ministries.

Jesus created crowds just by being Himself. His disciples worked to bring the crowd to Him at times, but His miraculous power drew them there, and His compassion kept them with Him. The crowd came for the spiritual food, but His wisdom and authority challenged them as individuals, and the people often left as quickly as they had gathered together. They would throw down everything they were doing to come and receive healing or see Him cast demons out of people. Still, when Jesus asked them individually to follow Him, they had a long list of excuses for fields, businesses, and families to care for instead. Let me get back to you on that, Jesus.

The crowd runs hot or cold, and the most remarkable example of that was Holy Week when they hailed Jesus as their Savior and King on one day and demanded that He be crucified the next. We spread that out over a week, but that change began happening within the first day. The only way any person could handle all the crowd control issues Jesus faced would be by doing what Paul tells us to do in our passage today:

Colossians 3:2 NRSV

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,

And are we really that different? The crowd comes and goes still today, and people go from praising Jesus to cursing Jesus within hours of significant life disruptions.

📷

Above the Clouds

I have only been on an airplane a handful of times. My last flight was from Charlotte, NC, to Lousiville, with thunderstorms in our path. I had a window seat, and I remember being amazed at the view of the sky around us. As we approached the storm, the pilot warned us about turbulence. It was evening, and the sun was beginning to set, but we could not see it for a while because of the thick dark clouds around us. Lightning was flashing, and I remember seeing lightning shooting up between the clouds rather than down.

I remember thinking that people have been around for thousands of years, and I was one of a few people in the history of creation who saw a thunderstorm from the inside. It was wild, exciting, and a little bit scary.

But we kept climbing. Soon we broke through the clouds and saw a clear blue sky above us with the sun setting into these storms. The perspective completely changed. Where once we saw only chaos and danger in a cloud of darkness, suddenly we saw how small that thunderstorm was compared to the vastness of the heavens above it all. There was nothing to fear anymore.

That view was indescribable, and, as I mentioned, not many people in the history of creation got to see it. You can only experience that if you are willing to put your faith in a pilot, get on a plane, and be ready to go through the storm. And then, you have to make sure you keep looking up.

📷

Keeping Your Head Up

This is not a scripture about thinking positive thoughts. Instead, it is a passage that teaches us about how Hope defines us. If you have no hope, you will be a hopeless person. If you pretend to have hope, you will be a delusional person. Those who have hope but choose not to use it or go a different way are fools.

They called Jesus these names during his last days before the cross. They were things they yelled at Him while He carried the cross to the Hill of the Skull. One of the thieves crucified beside Him hurled these insults at Him while He died. Some of the last words Jesus heard before He died were:

“You are hopeless! You’re delusional! You fool!”

But Jesus kept looking up because He knew His hope was real. There has never been anyone with as much power to protect themselves in self-defense, to heal themselves of any hurt, or with authority to command anyone or anything in all creation. There were a million other paths that Jesus could have taken at the encouragement of His friends, family, and those closest to Him. But Jesus recognized the devil behind every one of those open doors. So rather than looking for open doors, Jesus fixed His eyes on God and allowed Him to make the path. Any other course would deny Jesus the power of the resurrection and the privilege of being the firstborn from the dead.

And then came the third day. The tomb was empty. The women came back telling stories about seeing an angel, seeing Jesus. The words came back into their minds about these women: “Hopeless, delusional fools.” And then Jesus walked through a closed door into the room, and probably for the first time in their lives, these disciples knew who they were, who God was calling them to be, and how far the distance was between those two things.

That distance for us is as high as the heavens are from the earth below. We will never find a mountain high enough to climb to get there, even if we have the strength to do it. Or, we can take one plane ride, with Jesus, our pilot, through the storm and let Him lead, shape, and remake us in His image.

Paul wrote,

Colossians 3:3–4 NRSV

3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

We set our sight on heavenly things instead of earthly things, not to keep a positive attitude but because that is where our hope comes from. This world cannot save us, and we cannot save it. We can break it a little more or break it a little less, but in the end, we are broken with it and beyond repair. Our hope is not in getting things fixed up and put back together. Our hope is in a resurrection, where all things are made new, including us.

That power and that transformation begin when we pick up our cross and follow Jesus, through the storm, through death, putting all our hope in a God who loves us more than we love ourselves and allowing Him to give us new life as His people, His children, and His church.

Will you hold your head up and follow Jesus where He leads you, serving as He directs you? Nothing else will ever truly satisfy you.

Join me as we celebrate the gift of Christ’s new life and the resurrection power He shares with us.

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING FOR EASTER DAY OR SEASON

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing,

always and everywhere to give thanks to you,

Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.

You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God,

brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey,

and set before us the way of life.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven

we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection

you gave birth to your Church,

delivered us from slavery to sin and death,

and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

By your great mercy we have been born anew

to a living hope through the resurrection of your Son from the dead

and to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Once we were no people, but now we are your people,

declaring your wonderful deeds in Christ,

who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always,

in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread,

gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over he took the cup,

gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,

poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

On the day you raised him from the dead

he was recognized by his disciples in the breaking of the bread,

and in the power of your Holy Spirit your Church has continued

in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,

we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving

as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,

as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,

and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,

that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ,

one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,

until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,

all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever.

Amen.

Sunday School starts in a moment. As you go, keep your head up and your eyes fixed on Jesus so that you can follow Him wherever He leads you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.