Easter Day - A
Sandra Herrman
Many years ago, this pastor was invited to Easter dinner in the home of a parishioner. While we were standing around, waiting for the food to be spread out for us, the master of the house asked, "What is your definition of a Christian?"
"A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus rose from the dead." A simple answer. It seemed obvious enough, given that it was Easter Sunday. But the man looked appalled.
"If that's the definition, I don't know many Christians."
If that's the definition.... What other definition can we use? Jesus died on the cross? Yes, but if we stop there, the restoration of our relationship with God is tenuous at best. Did Jesus die in vain? Are we still living with only the faintest hope that we might attain eternal life? Are...
"A Christian is a person who believes that Jesus rose from the dead." A simple answer. It seemed obvious enough, given that it was Easter Sunday. But the man looked appalled.
"If that's the definition, I don't know many Christians."
If that's the definition.... What other definition can we use? Jesus died on the cross? Yes, but if we stop there, the restoration of our relationship with God is tenuous at best. Did Jesus die in vain? Are we still living with only the faintest hope that we might attain eternal life? Are...
David Kalas
Schuyler Rhodes
Every so often, I have been unable to watch a sports event that I am interested in when it has been broadcast live, and so I have recorded it for myself to watch at a later time. I should note that it is quite a challenge not to find out the final result of such an event before getting the chance to watch it. Sometimes I have successfully avoided finding out the result; sometimes I have not. And I want to say that there is a tremendous difference in the viewing experience between knowing and not knowing how the game is going to turn out.
I find that there is less emotional investment when I already know the end result. I experience less tension, less worry, and less exhilaration. It's more of a "ah, so that's how it happened" sort of experience.
I find that there is less emotional investment when I already know the end result. I experience less tension, less worry, and less exhilaration. It's more of a "ah, so that's how it happened" sort of experience.
R. Craig Maccreary
What does the territory ahead look like as you chart your way through what is
perhaps the most challenging and rewarding day of the Christian year? For many
preachers this is the Sunday that they agonize most about. It is not just that they will have
congregations that are well above average in attendance providing them with the
opportunity to present one of the core convictions of the Christian faith to one of the
largest audiences they will have. The waters here can be pretty treacherous because as the
preacher foresees the way ahead there are so many levels of expectation in the
congregation this Sunday.
No doubt for some the hope is that the preacher will be able to deliver a relatively light message on how the eternal wins out in the end, there are some causes...
No doubt for some the hope is that the preacher will be able to deliver a relatively light message on how the eternal wins out in the end, there are some causes...
Easter is a joyous time, a time of new life and new hope, of spring after winter, of the holiday after the school term is over, to use C. S. Lewis' phrase. But on this day when we celebrate life, on this day of days, let's take a chance. Let's begin with something of a downer. Let's talk about death.
It seems like both in biology and in religion the one constant has been ... death. It is the one thing that brings together, paradoxically, all life on the planet. It is something that unites people from Springfield, Illinois, with people from Calcutta, India, and with people from Osaka, Japan -- the fact that we will, all, die. There is the old line about the only two inevitable things in life are death and taxes. But that may not be the case any more, at least with regard to...
It seems like both in biology and in religion the one constant has been ... death. It is the one thing that brings together, paradoxically, all life on the planet. It is something that unites people from Springfield, Illinois, with people from Calcutta, India, and with people from Osaka, Japan -- the fact that we will, all, die. There is the old line about the only two inevitable things in life are death and taxes. But that may not be the case any more, at least with regard to...
We are accustomed to greeting others and to hearing others greet us at this time of year with the words "Have a Happy Easter!" And happy it should be, considering the event we celebrate is full of joy and praise and celebration. Indeed, it is nothing less than the event without which our faith would be in vain. It is our hope that since he was raised, we too will be raised to newness of life.
Yet the announcement that God has raised Christ from the dead might appropriately include another emotion: fear. The dramatic and traumatic realization that Christ is risen means our lives cannot be the same as they would be without Easter. We are people who live by hope and by confidence, and as people of hope we are challenged in every way to consider what difference the Easter message...
Yet the announcement that God has raised Christ from the dead might appropriately include another emotion: fear. The dramatic and traumatic realization that Christ is risen means our lives cannot be the same as they would be without Easter. We are people who live by hope and by confidence, and as people of hope we are challenged in every way to consider what difference the Easter message...
Some years ago someone asked me whether I believed that the resurrected Jesus was the Jesus whose corpuscles and muscles and cells and lungs had died and then were miraculously reinflated, reinvested with life, retriggered, and the like. Being a Bible-believer, I said no, because the Bible makes a point of the different character of the Jesus who makes appearances after death. Paul and the gospel writers struggle to find new language to match a new reality, and cannot find it. But they do not want to see the risen Jesus as the same old thing. Ever since, I've read in some of the right-wing press that I disbelieved the resurrection.
There is another way to fall off faith's tightwire: to say that the resurrection was "nothing but ..." a psychological transformation in the...
Wayne Brouwer
The central message of Christian faith is that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is what sets apart Christianity from all other religions. As a teacher, Jesus was very good, but there were others who were also keen. As a prophet, Jesus was a tremendous cultural critic, but others also blasted the powers that ruled. As a miracle worker, Jesus was captivating, but so, too, have been many who pulled novel tricks. Yet when it comes to Easter, Jesus is unparalleled. No one else died and came back to life. In his resurrection Jesus proclaimed the dawn of a new age. The ultimate threat to human existence had been overcome. Jesus is alive and lives forevermore!
Mark Ellingsen
All of the texts for this Easter’s celebration of the resurrection direct us to consider the resurrection’s reality and impact. This will lead to sermons focusing primarily on Sanctification.
Acts 10:34-43
The first lesson (Acts 10:34-43), which may also serve as the second lesson, reports on Peter’s confession of the gospel justifying his efforts to convert the Gentile Cornelius in Caesarea. The message of this lesson is a good example of Luke’s concern to highlight the universal outreach of Paul’s mission (1:8).
We certainly do not live in a society like Luke aimed to achieve in the Church. For all our talk about multiculturalism, we are as clannish as the Jewish people of biblical times. A Pew Research Center survey taken just...
Acts 10:34-43
The first lesson (Acts 10:34-43), which may also serve as the second lesson, reports on Peter’s confession of the gospel justifying his efforts to convert the Gentile Cornelius in Caesarea. The message of this lesson is a good example of Luke’s concern to highlight the universal outreach of Paul’s mission (1:8).
We certainly do not live in a society like Luke aimed to achieve in the Church. For all our talk about multiculturalism, we are as clannish as the Jewish people of biblical times. A Pew Research Center survey taken just...
Wayne Brouwer
Second chances are important to us. Do you remember the story of Anastasia, the woman who claimed to be the long-lost daughter of the last emperor of Russia, Czar Nicholas II? She was found depressed and suicidal in an insane asylum. Through hypnosis, she recaptured a memory that seemed to confirm her place in royal history. Then the press got wind of the story and sensationalized it: Could this destitute woman be the heir to the Russian throne?
Only one person could prove it: Nicholas’s mother. The old empress, who was still alive in exile, was brought in. After a long visit with the young woman, she announced to the world, “Anna is my granddaughter!”
Anna never gained a place in royal society because the old woman’s pronouncement only fueled the flames of...
Only one person could prove it: Nicholas’s mother. The old empress, who was still alive in exile, was brought in. After a long visit with the young woman, she announced to the world, “Anna is my granddaughter!”
Anna never gained a place in royal society because the old woman’s pronouncement only fueled the flames of...
Frank Ramirez
The promise of the resurrection is not only for Jesus, but for all who are lost – we shall be found. In the Acts passage, the Holy Spirit is found to be already present among those once far off who are now found near. The outsiders Cornelius and his household are welcomed into the fellowship. Jeremiah pines for those lost northern tribes dragged away by the Assyrian conquerors. They will return. Paul in Colossians puts it plainly – Christ is revealed in our infirmities, in our death, in our shortcomings, in our lostness, and so we are found, so we are raised in Christ. Mary of Magdala is certain that the body of Jesus is lost – and her relationship with the Risen Christ is restored. And finally, the lost relationship with heaven is restored for those who lost out. “This message is for you...
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