Proper 21
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle C
The Church Year Theological Clue
Depending on the lectionary followed and the calendar year, the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost occurs near St. Luke's Day (October 18th). St. Luke's Day is a celebration of the gospel, as well as a day of remembrance for the evangelist. As such, it reinforces the theology of the church year which has been shaped by the gospel of the Lord. It is the second half of the church year, in particular, which needs reinforcement by the gospel of the risen Lord, inasmuch as there are fewer theological clues than there are in the first half, or Christ's half, of the calendar. The cycles and seasons of the first semester of the year articulate the life and ministry of Jesus from a kerygmatic perspective; they are given birth and shape by the redeeming events in Jesus' life. Jesus' words and works dominate the gospels of the latter half of the church year and tend to de-emphasize the kerygma, in general, and the resurrection as the theological focus of Sunday, in particular. The saints' days tend to refocus the attention of the church on the kerygma, not only because some of them wrote the gospels, but because almost all of the saints of the early church died as martyrs, witnessing in their acceptance of death to the reality of Christ's resurrection.
St. Luke was a Greek, possibly born at Thebes, and a convert to Christianity, who be-came Paul's companion and "beloved physician." The Gospel of Luke and the sequel, the Book of Acts, are attributed to him. Tradition remembers him as a missionary who preached into old age; a witness to Christ, but not a literal martyr. Tradition also claims him to be an artist (at least one painting in a Roman church is attributed to him), as well as an author/historian/theologian. He tells the same story as Mark and Matthew, but relates it more as Jesus' "journey to Jerusalem," showing how the death, resurrection, and promised return of Jesus are theologically relevant to conditions in the world of his day and ours. To remember and to celebrate St. Luke is to remember and celebrate the very heart of the gospel, Jesus' death and resurrection, and this reinforces the kerygmatic theology of this part of the church year.
The Prayer Of The Day
The classic and contemporary collects for St. Luke's Day emphasize the work of healing in Jesus' ministry and in the church today. In The Book Of Common Prayer the contemporary collect reads this way: "Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician to set forth in the gospel the love and healing power of your Son: Graciously continue in your church this love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."
This classic and/or the contemporary prayers might be used on almost any Sunday. The classic collect addresses our inability to serve and please God without the Holy Spirit: "O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee: Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen."
The Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 146 (L); 146:4-9 (E); 146:6c-9 (RC) - The various worship books and lectionaries number this among the most used of all of the psalms. It is a Hallel psalm - the first of the last group of such psalms. Here it is selected because it speaks about God's justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, and his other works of mercy among the people of the world. Psalm 146 offers praise to God because he is merciful and kind and has the power to support his people in all of their crises in life. Psalm 146 centers on Jesus' answer to the disciples of John who asked him, "Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another?" It asserts that people who know and trust the Lord are happy and hopeful because they depend on the Lord God, "who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them," and keeps his promise forever. He is a God who gives justice to the hungry and oppressed, sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down, cares for the stranger, sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked. Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Psalm prayer (146 - LBW) - "God of glory and power, happy indeed are those who have put their trust in you. Shine the brightness of your light upon us, that we may love you always with a pure heart and praise you forever; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Readings
Amos 6:1a, 4-7 (RC); 6:1-7 (E, L) - This reading, which denounces people who live in the utmost luxury, oblivious to the plight of people living in desperate need around them, points to the Gospel for the Day, the parable of Lazarus and Dives. It puts down people who love themselves more than they love God and other persons, indirectly suggesting that such people probably live "in the lap of luxury" at the expense of others. The least that can be said about them is that they have made pleasure and luxury their gods and care only for themselves and the maintenance of their own selfish lifestyle. They enjoy themselves and leave the poor to die in their poverty. Amos declares that such people are deserving of a life of exile under a foreign conqueror; they have lost their place in the favor of God.
Joel 2:23-30 (C) - This (minor) prophet writes some 300 years before Christ and relates what God has said to him about the fate of post-exilic Israel. He is convinced that God will abundantly bless his people again, multiplying their flocks and increasing their crops so that they will have everything they need. He will also eliminate the various pests that have infested their crops - locusts, grasshoppers, and the "cutter - thereby "(restoring) to you the years" which these insects have taken away from the people of God. Beyond all of these physical blessings, he will anoint his people with his spirit, and they will prophesy, dream dreams, and see visions of the glory of God. The reading is one of promise of the sustenance of the people of God in a hostile world.
1 Timothy 6:6-16 (L); 6:6-19 (C); 6:11-16 (RC); 6:11-19 (E) - Any Christian, who has attended many ordinations in Christian churches, is likely to recognize this reading as a kind of charge given to the person, or persons, being ordained. Ordination to full-time ministry in the church is, according to Paul, related to baptism and the promises that are made in baptism. There is a sense in which baptism is an ordination service for everyone who receives it; one not only receives "everything that God has to offer" in baptism, but one is also ordained into the work of the church, witnessing to Christ and serving the world in his name. A few persons, who are baptized, are called to special work in the church - the proclamation and teaching of the Word, and to a position of leadership in the congregation. Such people are expected to "fight the good fight," to live the "good life," and to "keep the commandments unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ ...," Paul, accordingly, saw an eschatological connection between the ordination of people into ministry and the resurrection/ascension of the Lord. To him, ordination, in a sense, was for all time and until the kingdom comes in its fullness.
Luke 16:19-31 (RC, E, L, C) - In this interesting parable, which follows other sayings and teachings about wealth and its use, Jesus suggests that the poor will be delivered from their plight in the world to come, while the rich will take the places of the poor in that life. There is something of an expansion of his saying in the "sermon on the plain" in this reading, where he says, "Blessed are you, poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Lazarus and the rich man, known traditionally as Dives, exchange places after death. But the point of the parable comes out later, when Dives, on learning that there is no way the "chasm" between heaven and hell can be crossed after death, asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to warn his brothers so that they can avoid his fate. The "twist" in the story is in Abraham's answer, suggesting that they have already been warned ("They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."): "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead." Jesus insists that people who don't believe in the sacred Scriptures have no chance of being convinced by a miracle, even the miracle of resurrection and, specifically, his resurrection from the dead. God comes to, and blesses, his people through his Word and the Holy spirit, and those who believe the Word and are instructed by the Spirit can put their trust for the life to come in him. (It seems rather odd that Jesus should choose to call the poor man "Lazarus," who was an actual person, the brother of Mary and Martha, according to John, and was resuscitated by Jesus. Did Luke have any knowledge of Lazarus? He only mentions Mary and Martha.)
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
Luke 16:19-31 (RC, E, L, C) - "The Deliverance." - Jeri Watson, a woman living in the environs of Baltimore, wrote an article that was published in the Baltimore Evening Sun, "A bid to prolong life just extended his dying," in which she told about the agonizing death of her father-in-law, Raja Watson. He had suffered for years from angina and had a severe heart attack on Easter, 1990, and had to be hospitalized. Diagnostic tests prompted the physicians to prescribe a four-bypass operation, which turned out to be seven-bypass surgery. At 80 years of age, he also had diabetes and other complications, and before long a leg had to be amputated; there was fear that the toes on his other leg were becoming infected and that he was going to have other problems. But before any additional operations were necessary, he died, prompting the article questioning the medical procedures that he was put through. His time from Easter to his death was filled with pain and, when he was conscious, anxiety; it was a terrible ordeal for his loved ones, too. Why hadn't the physicians let him die, the daughter-in-law wondered? She wrote that "(he) provided the only possible answer" in a dream she had shortly after he died. In it, he was "whole and strong and wearing an Irish hat he loved." Jeri Wilson writes, "In my dream he was dancing a jig. And laughing. And saying, in a sing-song voice: 'Hey, look, I got away. Hey, I got away.' "
1. Lazarus was the man who 'got away' away from a life of poverty and abject misery. Like Raja Watson, he escaped by dying and, in his case, to a new and renewed existence, in which his life was completely turned around in heaven. Death may be an escape and really can be a blessing for Christians. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., once said that death is a friend, because "Death brings us to life. So let us address death as would Francis of Assisi: 'Brother Death,' 'Sister Death.'"
2. All people must die, sooner or later. Lazarus died, and the rich man lived on for awhile; he died, too. But, unlike Lazarus, he was separated from God and his kingdom in death. His situation was reversed, not merely because he was wealthy, but because he loved luxury more than he loved God and his fellow human beings; he must have stepped over Lazarus time and again, apparently without doing anything to ease his hunger and pain. Death may only be a temporary escape from pain; it does not guarantee that all who die will be saved.
3. The world we live in seems to belong to Dives and his friends. Nearly everyone seems to be trying to get rich, to accumulate money, possessions, property, investments, jewelry, and all the other things that are necessary to a life of plenty and luxury. It has been said that the average person cares no more about the plight of the poor than he does about the national debt. People are engaged in the pursuit of wealth and happiness as if they will never die. But when we die, we have to leave all of this behind, on this side of the grave.
4. The really rich people are those who hear and believe the Word of God and, through the Holy Spirit, put their faith and their fate in the hands of Jesus Christ. Christianity is a religion of resurrection and that only comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Believe, believe, and really be rich. That is the way to deliverance; "I got away through Jesus Christ."
Amos 6:1-7 (E, L); 6:1a, 4-7 (RC) - "The 'Lean' Choice."
1. The world tells us to seek luxury and "live like kings." Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
2. The quest for luxury may very well be all-consuming and self-consuming. It may not allow us time for others, even loved ones, let alone the poor.
3. The evil dimension of luxury is that it lulls us into living for ourselves, for enjoying what we have without any positive contributions to the world.
4. Christians are called to a positive response to Jesus Christ, by which they serve God and other human beings. The faith must be exercised, or it, and we, will be lost.
(Note: Much of this sermon sketch may be incorporated into the sermon on the Gospel for the Day, as well as being preached as an Old Testament sermon by itself.)
Joel 2:23-30 (C) - "A Good And Gracious God."
1. The God of Israel is a God who has promised to bless and support his people.
2. The Bible tells us that God has kept all of his promises made to his own.
3. He also gives his people hope for the future in prophecy, dreams, and visions and the promise to "pour out my spirit" on the earth.
4. God has done that and, in Jesus Christ, he has promised to be with his people forever. He is a good and gracious God - forever!
1 Timothy 6:6-16 (L); 6:6-19 (C); 6:11-16 (RC); 6:11-19 (E) - "The 'Call' And The 'Charge.' "
1. God calls all people to be witnesses to the gospel and workers in the kingdom of the Lord. He calls some to the ordained ministry of the gospel.
2. He charges those who are called to gospel ministry to be faithful to their Lord and their calling as pastors of the church.
3. Church members have a right to expect that their pastors will be examples of Christian living and deportment, but they must also remember that they, too, received a type of ordination to ministry in their baptism.
4. Pastors and people are called upon to be faithful to the Lord as long as they live, and to live as though he were to appear again today. Then they may pray, "Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"
A Sermon For St. Luke's Day On The (LBW) Gospel For The Day, Luke 1:1-4; 24:44-53 - "Luke, The Story Teller."
1. Luke set out to tell the world's most important story, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the story that shapes the faith.
2. His story is part of the New Testament (canon), because he told the full story and got the story "right."
3. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the heart of the story - God's plot, as it were, to save the human race from sin, death, and the devil.
4. The story gives us a reason to rejoice, to believe and to serve the Lord with gladness, for we shall live now and forever with him.
Depending on the lectionary followed and the calendar year, the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost occurs near St. Luke's Day (October 18th). St. Luke's Day is a celebration of the gospel, as well as a day of remembrance for the evangelist. As such, it reinforces the theology of the church year which has been shaped by the gospel of the Lord. It is the second half of the church year, in particular, which needs reinforcement by the gospel of the risen Lord, inasmuch as there are fewer theological clues than there are in the first half, or Christ's half, of the calendar. The cycles and seasons of the first semester of the year articulate the life and ministry of Jesus from a kerygmatic perspective; they are given birth and shape by the redeeming events in Jesus' life. Jesus' words and works dominate the gospels of the latter half of the church year and tend to de-emphasize the kerygma, in general, and the resurrection as the theological focus of Sunday, in particular. The saints' days tend to refocus the attention of the church on the kerygma, not only because some of them wrote the gospels, but because almost all of the saints of the early church died as martyrs, witnessing in their acceptance of death to the reality of Christ's resurrection.
St. Luke was a Greek, possibly born at Thebes, and a convert to Christianity, who be-came Paul's companion and "beloved physician." The Gospel of Luke and the sequel, the Book of Acts, are attributed to him. Tradition remembers him as a missionary who preached into old age; a witness to Christ, but not a literal martyr. Tradition also claims him to be an artist (at least one painting in a Roman church is attributed to him), as well as an author/historian/theologian. He tells the same story as Mark and Matthew, but relates it more as Jesus' "journey to Jerusalem," showing how the death, resurrection, and promised return of Jesus are theologically relevant to conditions in the world of his day and ours. To remember and to celebrate St. Luke is to remember and celebrate the very heart of the gospel, Jesus' death and resurrection, and this reinforces the kerygmatic theology of this part of the church year.
The Prayer Of The Day
The classic and contemporary collects for St. Luke's Day emphasize the work of healing in Jesus' ministry and in the church today. In The Book Of Common Prayer the contemporary collect reads this way: "Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician to set forth in the gospel the love and healing power of your Son: Graciously continue in your church this love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."
This classic and/or the contemporary prayers might be used on almost any Sunday. The classic collect addresses our inability to serve and please God without the Holy Spirit: "O God, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee: Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen."
The Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 146 (L); 146:4-9 (E); 146:6c-9 (RC) - The various worship books and lectionaries number this among the most used of all of the psalms. It is a Hallel psalm - the first of the last group of such psalms. Here it is selected because it speaks about God's justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, and his other works of mercy among the people of the world. Psalm 146 offers praise to God because he is merciful and kind and has the power to support his people in all of their crises in life. Psalm 146 centers on Jesus' answer to the disciples of John who asked him, "Are you he who is to come, or do we look for another?" It asserts that people who know and trust the Lord are happy and hopeful because they depend on the Lord God, "who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them," and keeps his promise forever. He is a God who gives justice to the hungry and oppressed, sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down, cares for the stranger, sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked. Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Psalm prayer (146 - LBW) - "God of glory and power, happy indeed are those who have put their trust in you. Shine the brightness of your light upon us, that we may love you always with a pure heart and praise you forever; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
The Readings
Amos 6:1a, 4-7 (RC); 6:1-7 (E, L) - This reading, which denounces people who live in the utmost luxury, oblivious to the plight of people living in desperate need around them, points to the Gospel for the Day, the parable of Lazarus and Dives. It puts down people who love themselves more than they love God and other persons, indirectly suggesting that such people probably live "in the lap of luxury" at the expense of others. The least that can be said about them is that they have made pleasure and luxury their gods and care only for themselves and the maintenance of their own selfish lifestyle. They enjoy themselves and leave the poor to die in their poverty. Amos declares that such people are deserving of a life of exile under a foreign conqueror; they have lost their place in the favor of God.
Joel 2:23-30 (C) - This (minor) prophet writes some 300 years before Christ and relates what God has said to him about the fate of post-exilic Israel. He is convinced that God will abundantly bless his people again, multiplying their flocks and increasing their crops so that they will have everything they need. He will also eliminate the various pests that have infested their crops - locusts, grasshoppers, and the "cutter - thereby "(restoring) to you the years" which these insects have taken away from the people of God. Beyond all of these physical blessings, he will anoint his people with his spirit, and they will prophesy, dream dreams, and see visions of the glory of God. The reading is one of promise of the sustenance of the people of God in a hostile world.
1 Timothy 6:6-16 (L); 6:6-19 (C); 6:11-16 (RC); 6:11-19 (E) - Any Christian, who has attended many ordinations in Christian churches, is likely to recognize this reading as a kind of charge given to the person, or persons, being ordained. Ordination to full-time ministry in the church is, according to Paul, related to baptism and the promises that are made in baptism. There is a sense in which baptism is an ordination service for everyone who receives it; one not only receives "everything that God has to offer" in baptism, but one is also ordained into the work of the church, witnessing to Christ and serving the world in his name. A few persons, who are baptized, are called to special work in the church - the proclamation and teaching of the Word, and to a position of leadership in the congregation. Such people are expected to "fight the good fight," to live the "good life," and to "keep the commandments unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ ...," Paul, accordingly, saw an eschatological connection between the ordination of people into ministry and the resurrection/ascension of the Lord. To him, ordination, in a sense, was for all time and until the kingdom comes in its fullness.
Luke 16:19-31 (RC, E, L, C) - In this interesting parable, which follows other sayings and teachings about wealth and its use, Jesus suggests that the poor will be delivered from their plight in the world to come, while the rich will take the places of the poor in that life. There is something of an expansion of his saying in the "sermon on the plain" in this reading, where he says, "Blessed are you, poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Lazarus and the rich man, known traditionally as Dives, exchange places after death. But the point of the parable comes out later, when Dives, on learning that there is no way the "chasm" between heaven and hell can be crossed after death, asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to warn his brothers so that they can avoid his fate. The "twist" in the story is in Abraham's answer, suggesting that they have already been warned ("They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them."): "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead." Jesus insists that people who don't believe in the sacred Scriptures have no chance of being convinced by a miracle, even the miracle of resurrection and, specifically, his resurrection from the dead. God comes to, and blesses, his people through his Word and the Holy spirit, and those who believe the Word and are instructed by the Spirit can put their trust for the life to come in him. (It seems rather odd that Jesus should choose to call the poor man "Lazarus," who was an actual person, the brother of Mary and Martha, according to John, and was resuscitated by Jesus. Did Luke have any knowledge of Lazarus? He only mentions Mary and Martha.)
Sermon Suggestions, Synopses, Sketches, Stories
Luke 16:19-31 (RC, E, L, C) - "The Deliverance." - Jeri Watson, a woman living in the environs of Baltimore, wrote an article that was published in the Baltimore Evening Sun, "A bid to prolong life just extended his dying," in which she told about the agonizing death of her father-in-law, Raja Watson. He had suffered for years from angina and had a severe heart attack on Easter, 1990, and had to be hospitalized. Diagnostic tests prompted the physicians to prescribe a four-bypass operation, which turned out to be seven-bypass surgery. At 80 years of age, he also had diabetes and other complications, and before long a leg had to be amputated; there was fear that the toes on his other leg were becoming infected and that he was going to have other problems. But before any additional operations were necessary, he died, prompting the article questioning the medical procedures that he was put through. His time from Easter to his death was filled with pain and, when he was conscious, anxiety; it was a terrible ordeal for his loved ones, too. Why hadn't the physicians let him die, the daughter-in-law wondered? She wrote that "(he) provided the only possible answer" in a dream she had shortly after he died. In it, he was "whole and strong and wearing an Irish hat he loved." Jeri Wilson writes, "In my dream he was dancing a jig. And laughing. And saying, in a sing-song voice: 'Hey, look, I got away. Hey, I got away.' "
1. Lazarus was the man who 'got away' away from a life of poverty and abject misery. Like Raja Watson, he escaped by dying and, in his case, to a new and renewed existence, in which his life was completely turned around in heaven. Death may be an escape and really can be a blessing for Christians. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., once said that death is a friend, because "Death brings us to life. So let us address death as would Francis of Assisi: 'Brother Death,' 'Sister Death.'"
2. All people must die, sooner or later. Lazarus died, and the rich man lived on for awhile; he died, too. But, unlike Lazarus, he was separated from God and his kingdom in death. His situation was reversed, not merely because he was wealthy, but because he loved luxury more than he loved God and his fellow human beings; he must have stepped over Lazarus time and again, apparently without doing anything to ease his hunger and pain. Death may only be a temporary escape from pain; it does not guarantee that all who die will be saved.
3. The world we live in seems to belong to Dives and his friends. Nearly everyone seems to be trying to get rich, to accumulate money, possessions, property, investments, jewelry, and all the other things that are necessary to a life of plenty and luxury. It has been said that the average person cares no more about the plight of the poor than he does about the national debt. People are engaged in the pursuit of wealth and happiness as if they will never die. But when we die, we have to leave all of this behind, on this side of the grave.
4. The really rich people are those who hear and believe the Word of God and, through the Holy Spirit, put their faith and their fate in the hands of Jesus Christ. Christianity is a religion of resurrection and that only comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Believe, believe, and really be rich. That is the way to deliverance; "I got away through Jesus Christ."
Amos 6:1-7 (E, L); 6:1a, 4-7 (RC) - "The 'Lean' Choice."
1. The world tells us to seek luxury and "live like kings." Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
2. The quest for luxury may very well be all-consuming and self-consuming. It may not allow us time for others, even loved ones, let alone the poor.
3. The evil dimension of luxury is that it lulls us into living for ourselves, for enjoying what we have without any positive contributions to the world.
4. Christians are called to a positive response to Jesus Christ, by which they serve God and other human beings. The faith must be exercised, or it, and we, will be lost.
(Note: Much of this sermon sketch may be incorporated into the sermon on the Gospel for the Day, as well as being preached as an Old Testament sermon by itself.)
Joel 2:23-30 (C) - "A Good And Gracious God."
1. The God of Israel is a God who has promised to bless and support his people.
2. The Bible tells us that God has kept all of his promises made to his own.
3. He also gives his people hope for the future in prophecy, dreams, and visions and the promise to "pour out my spirit" on the earth.
4. God has done that and, in Jesus Christ, he has promised to be with his people forever. He is a good and gracious God - forever!
1 Timothy 6:6-16 (L); 6:6-19 (C); 6:11-16 (RC); 6:11-19 (E) - "The 'Call' And The 'Charge.' "
1. God calls all people to be witnesses to the gospel and workers in the kingdom of the Lord. He calls some to the ordained ministry of the gospel.
2. He charges those who are called to gospel ministry to be faithful to their Lord and their calling as pastors of the church.
3. Church members have a right to expect that their pastors will be examples of Christian living and deportment, but they must also remember that they, too, received a type of ordination to ministry in their baptism.
4. Pastors and people are called upon to be faithful to the Lord as long as they live, and to live as though he were to appear again today. Then they may pray, "Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"
A Sermon For St. Luke's Day On The (LBW) Gospel For The Day, Luke 1:1-4; 24:44-53 - "Luke, The Story Teller."
1. Luke set out to tell the world's most important story, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the story that shapes the faith.
2. His story is part of the New Testament (canon), because he told the full story and got the story "right."
3. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the heart of the story - God's plot, as it were, to save the human race from sin, death, and the devil.
4. The story gives us a reason to rejoice, to believe and to serve the Lord with gladness, for we shall live now and forever with him.
