Friday, April 18, 2014

IT'S EASTER AND I'M GLAD

This weekend is celebrated world-wide as Christians remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  While many of us observe these three weekly in communion, the world is now on high alert to this activity some 2000 years past.

The truth of Jesus finds itself challenged in a web of disorderly followers as myself. Our critics are often such due to proper judgment.  For our moments of cynicism and swagger, we put a blemish upon the beauty of Jesus the Lamb.  If these traits and others go out publicly, and they do, we then find the perception of goodness and holiness of the Christian life becoming blurred if not completely disregarded.

Christians live on a strange and complex stage.  Where we can cause rebuke because of our mis-steps in following Jesus by our arrogance or ignorance, there is also the likely rejection by the same people if we were to follow spiritually closer to Jesus in the first place.  After all, a huge part of this weekend's celebration is that he was crucified.

One of the challenges before us, therefore, is that we live devotedly and humbly enough in faithfully following Jesus that we would properly be dismissed by those who reject the Son of God anyway.  Because we are silly about our faith or snobbish about it does not give us room to crow.

What we want the world to know is not our religious correctness; but our Savior.  We want them to meet him just as we did a few years back.  Jesus is neither a magician nor is he a figment of history's imagination.  He is a real person who walked in our sandals and begged for a signal from above that he did not have to be punished for our sins.

Yet....he took them on....and won!

This Sunday will bear the fruit of full houses of worship.  Once a year--other than a similar trend at Christmas--churches are packed.  I say Hurray!  Yippee!  Way to go!  Awesome! and Cool!  America still has embedded within its populace a recall of what Jesus did for each generation.

A lot of people will be visiting our places this Sunday.  Would you pause for a moment when you begin to brush past those you don't know?  While we mean nothing by it, some are watching to see if we have eyes like Jesus to notice those who wish to touch him; even those up a tree who wish to just look at him.

Visitors will be abundant Sunday morning.  I'm pumped.  May our messages be full of hope and our greetings be full of welcome!

It's Easter......company is coming....and I'm really glad.

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