May 2022
Dear Friends of First Lutheran,
“Alleluia! Alleluia!” He Has Risen! Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, has risen from the dead! The stone has been rolled away and the empty tomb lets us all know without a shadow of doubt that death has been overcome. The appearance of the Risen Christ to the disciples brings to fulfillment what had been foretold of Him in all the Scriptures. The Messiah had to first suffer and die but He will rise again on the third day. Let us raise our voices in glory to God and to Christ, our Savior and King!
I pray that this day of resurrection will bring you and your families great joy and hope. The new life that Jesus has given us is our great inheritance as well. If we believe in Christ Jesus, confess His glorious name, and bear witness to that name in our lives, then we too have the hope of everlasting life. May God be praised both now and forever!
As many of you know, the season of Easter encompasses 50 days, the whole time between Easter Sunday and the Day of Pentecost. Yet, apart from attempts to keep an Easter hymn or two in the service and the festive decorations, it doesn’t always feel much like Easter as we get near the end of spring, even more so this year with Easter having come so late. I think part of that just has to do with the way the world calls our attention to the “next” thing on the horizon. Mother’s Day comes up this month. Graduation season is about here. There’s Memorial Day weekend. The weather is warming up nicely and we’ll naturally be spending more time doing yardwork, golfing, fishing, and outdoor sporting events. Everything in the world seems to call us away from church. And in our old nature, sometimes we even ask: “since we gave church its due during Lent and Holy Week, what do we need all these Sundays of Easter for?” Well, we need to be an Easter Church. That may seem to be a surprise to some – that we need “to be” an Easter Church, a church of new life and new possibilities – after all, aren’t we always preaching Christ’s resurrection and new life? Can we really get any more Easter-y than that?
In closing, I found a few bible passages about what it means to be an Easter church.
An Easter church is a place to gather weekly for worship, but it’s up to you whether you will experience the presence of God. John 4:24
An Easter church is a family you can belong to, but it’s up to you to develop
friendships. Proverbs 18:24An Easter church is a place where gifted teachers will explain the bible and how you can apply it to your life, but it’s up to you to align your life with God’s truth. James 1:22
An Easter church is a place where you can use your gifts, passion, skills, personality, and life experiences to serve, but it’s up to you to become a servant. Matthew 20:28
An Easter church is a place where you have the chance to change the world by fulfilling the Great Commission, but it’s up to you to become a person of impact. Romans 10:14
An Easter church is a place where we simply become the hands and feet of Jesus.
Alleluia! He Has Risen!
Pastor Jim