Morning Everyone!
Burrrr!!!! It is cold outside! The wind is blowing and it is (at least right now) a dreary looking day out there. We are still wiping the ashes off our foreheads, knowing that the season in the church called Lent has begun. As I remember, what I told you the other night at the Ash Wednesday service is that we can’t get to Easter without first going through Lent. In order to really, really, really appreciate the gift of Christ, we have to do some serious thinking and some authentic prayer about what had to happen before the empty tomb. If you didn’t get one on Wednesday night, there is a little Lenten Devotional Book waiting for you at the church. I hope you will use it each of the 40 days of Lent to help in your following Jesus to the cross. It is a deep and beautiful journey!
BUT…… somehow God is leading me to spend the Sundays in Lent preaching about something that is at the deepest heart of the Gospel – yet is something we don’t talk about enough. And that is RESURRECTION. We get through Lent, through Holy Week with the Jesus meal and the Tenebrae service. We hang the black cloth on the cross. We wait. And finally we celebrate Easter. We sing it (Hallelujah, He Arose!!) We hug and greet one another (Alleluia! He is risen!) We eat the ham and color the eggs and wear the new dress.
And then it’s over. But something happened on and after that third day.
The Bible tells us that Jesus left the tomb. And for 40 days, he lived on the earth having encounters with some of the people he loved most. We don’t hear their stories enough. So for the Sundays in Lent, we will take some time to visit with those Jesus visited with and see how his visit affected their lives. We start tomorrow with Mary Magdalene, who is referred to as apostolorum apostola, apostle to the apostles. The first to see the risen Christ, she has a story to tell that can make a difference in our lives. He has only to speak her name, Mary…… and new hope replaces the grief and fear.
Others Jesus encountered were Simon Peter and Thomas and the disciples going to Emmaus and a bit later Saul on the Damascus Road. I hope you will be able to make it for all these very holy conversations. They should help us to recognize the holy conversations we have in our lives with him as well. Suffering, sin and death are powerful……. but they do not have the final word, y’all. When hope fades, these discussions open our eyes to the same hope Jesus offered through his resurrection. See you Sunday!!
Grace and Peace,
Martha