EASTER: THE GREAT THING!
I hope all enjoyed a wonderful and glorious Easter. I had the opportunity to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord with my family. Immediately after worship the church held a great Easter egg hunt. I stood and watched as the little folk poured out with their baskets to find the egg treasures in the newly green grass.
Worship was great!
Being with my family was great!
The Easter egg hunt was great!
I sound like Tony the Tiger – don’t I? Yet Easter is a call to remember – to focus upon and celebrate…
The Great Things
The greatest of all things for me is that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God has come and invites us by faith into the realm of God where abundant and eternal life reigns – now and forever!
But we have a tendency in the church to allow to slip out of focus The Great Things. Dr. Ronald Byars, Professor of Preaching and Worship at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, offers this extraordinarily relevant critique:
“…deprived of confidence about The Great Things of our faith, we have become passionately certain about smaller things. We are certain about abortion rights or abortion wrongs – about what pronouns may be used or must be forbidden – about who can or cannot be ordained… None of these issues is unimportant but the ardor with which we embrace one view or another seems to substitute for a lost zeal for The Great Things….”
And just where do we find the identity of these Great Things? We find them in the completely trustworthy witness of the New Testament to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is The Great and in His words The Great is known and through His Holy Spirit we are empowered to live with zeal The Great!
(Perhaps you can tell I’ve been out of the pulpit too long. My family is great but they are not willing to sit at home and listen to me preach.)
Upcoming in sabbatical time—
Shortly I will be spending time at my alma mater (Wheaton College) as I study at their Marion E. Wade Center which houses the world’s definitive collection of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers …. Wheaton (located in a Chicago suburb) is a place of tremendous resources both spiritually and academically. This is a change in my original plans but a change I believe will be beneficial. Wheaton College and its great legacy has always served to point me to The Great Things.
Continuing to speak of great things – I received an invitation from Rob Chambers to his graduation from Union Seminary. I join with all in extending my congratulations for this accomplishment and the future ministry God has for him.
I look forward to seeing you soon and remember…..
“WE ARE AN EASTER PEOPLE AND HALLELUJAH IS OUR SONG!”
Pastor Ron
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