Tag: easter

Easter

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment

Empty tomb

One of the best things about what I do as a Pastor and a Chaplain is that I hear lots of stories.  As I sojourn in and out of hospitals, nursing homes, and churches, the many rich accounts of people’s lives continue to amaze me.  Some are profoundly sad, some are incredibly joyous, all include relationships of love and some of hate.  The narratives underlying the daily existence of many people is often an alchemical mix of genuine altruism and mindless neglect.  Since we live on this fallen planet with its strange combination of amazing beauty and severe conditions, it only makes sense that the people of the earth experience the wide range of emotions and experiences from grief to joy.  No matter who I speak with, wherever they are from, we all need hope.

Earl (not his real name) had brain surgery.  It effected his speech.  Earl labors to speak and communicate.  Indeed, he struggles so much to do so that I can only pick out bits and pieces of what he is trying to say to me.  The work of talking is made even more frustrating with the fact that Earl was once an extroverted pastor who made his living talking and speaking and offering words of hope.  Now he can barely get a sentence out his mouth.

Punctuated throughout most of our conversation were swear words of which he apologized.  Instead of poo-pooing this wonderful older minister for his imprecations, I invited us to swear together.  For several minutes, what must have looked kooky crazy to any angels looking on, we sat and swore.  Earl and I expressed our anger, disappointment, and tears over the loss of a precious gift.

Then, after we had a good session of lament, I read the timeless story of a person who conquered everything that is wrong and unjust in this world.  Jesus suffered like no other before or since.  He felt loss.  He knew grief firsthand.  He died.

But death could not hold him in the grave.  The power of God raised Christ the Lord to new life.  Now, the life of Jesus is my life, and Earl’s life.  I didn’t read the glorious story of Jesus to change Earl’s feelings or even to try and make him feel better.  I read the story because its real, its true, and it is the Christian’s hope.

I believe the words of 1 Corinthians 15:20 are right:

“Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life.”

Every hope, each promise, and all expectations for Christians everywhere are completely and totally realized in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  Easter, or more aptly, Resurrection Day, is the highest holy day of the entire year for followers of Jesus.  One of the great things about Easter is that it is not only one day in the Christian Year – it comprises 40 days leading to the day of Pentecost and the giving of the Spirit.  That means we celebrate the truth “Jesus is alive!” for six wonderful Spring weeks.  We purposefully take a good look at our hope.

The somber reflection of Lent with its emphasis on confession of sin and repentance now flowers into the exultant joy and celebration of new life.  The call and response of Christians in the glorious season of Easter is “He is risen!” “He is risen, indeed!”

If there ever was a time for the church to give testimony to the redeeming and saving work of Jesus, it is on Resurrection Day and throughout the Easter season (often referred to as “Eastertide”).  Now is the appropriate time for fellow believers to hear from their brothers and sisters in Christ, how he has brought them renewal – a new outlook and perspective; a new way of relating to others; a new purpose; a completely new life.  We are so tied and in union with Jesus that his resurrection is our resurrection.  Christ’s rising to new life gives us hope.

Earl has hope.  I have hope.  You have hope.  The effects of the fallen world will not always have its way on the earth.  Christ is crucified.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.

Eastertide

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            It could very well be that you have never heard of the word “Eastertide,” and maybe not even in your church.  In my judgment, that is quite unfortunate because Eastertide is a significant season in the Christian Year.  It spans fifty days until Pentecost.  Yep, that is seven weeks of bringing the new life we enjoy to the forefront.  Eastertide’s intentional focus is to recognize and celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, thus, exulting in our own new life in him.
 
            Now, you might be saying to yourself something like this: “Why do we need to have some liturgical season about Christ’s resurrection?  Shouldn’t we be living like we recognize this every day?”  Yes, of course we should.  But consider this:  If you only sing songs of resurrection on Easter Sunday in your church; only occasionally, at best, think of Christ’s resurrection outside of Easter Sunday; then, perhaps it is wise to bring a highlighted focus to the resurrection in a special season.  Just as we would likely not think of taking only one vacation day in the year for renewal, so it is necessary to take more than one day to enjoy Easter.  If nothing else, Eastertide gives believers an opportunity to let Christ’s resurrection percolate in our hearts so that we end up becoming people in real life who exhibit an alive-spirit.  And God knows we could use much more of that in our congregations!
 
            If life, eternal life, and the necessity of being alive are all needs we have within particular congregations, then it only makes sense that we would want to take advantage of what Eastertide has to offer us:  a deliberate look at Christ’s resurrection, exploring its implications and impact for us and our churches.  Simply assuming that we all know about the resurrection will not do, any more than my wife simply assuming I love her without looking her straight in the eye and telling her so.  
 
            If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile (1 Corinthians 15:17) and we can only expect a sin-as-usual kind of approach to life with a sort of shoulder shrug that says, “Meh, what’s a guy to do?”  But, instead, we have the hope of life everlasting because Christ has risen from death.  We have the hope of individual renewal and corporate revitalization since we serve a risen Savior.
 
            Therefore this is the perfect time of year to engage in some renewal practices or even make a few simple changes that show signs of life within the congregation.  Here are just a few ideas for lifting Christ’s resurrection into the next few months:
 
Pray for revival.  Wherever there is deadness there is no Jesus.  Christ brings life, so praying to God for revival is a deliberate way of connecting with the Lord.
 
Squarely address things in the church which are death-dealing.  Gossip, back-biting, slander, and an entire host of sins of the tongue kill and murder people.  It brings death.  Simply sluffing-off someone’s acerbic speech as “that’s just the way they are” will not do in the church, unless you want Jesus at arms-length.
 
Promote things which are life-giving.  If sins of the tongue bring death, using our speech for encouragement, love, mercy, forgiveness, and building up one another in the church promotes growth, health, and life.
 
Preach a sermon series on new life.  The church is the hope of the world because Christ is the risen Lord.  Boldly proclaim the truth of the resurrected Christ and how it works in reaching the world.
 
Start that new ministry that you always believed would make a difference.  It is the season to take a risk.  After all, if you have eternal life can you really fail?  Host a new small group in your home.  Transform that unused space in the church building.  If you are a layperson, blow away your pastor by asking him/her in what ways you can bring life to your church (believe me, your pastor will have ideas for you!).
 
Focus on daily habits of spiritual health and life.  If you would not think of skipping meals for days at a time, then think about the erosion to your church that occurs when many individual parishioners do not read their Bibles on a regular basis or pray with any kind of consistency.  Make a plan and stick to it.  It will not only bring growth to your own life, but will impact those around you.
 

 

            Just keeping the word “Eastertide” in front of you for the next few months can be a simple yet powerful way of reminding us that God has called us to new life.  Let the reality of Christ’s resurrection take root in your heart to such an extent that Jesus becomes the greatest influence to all your thinking, speaking, and acting.

Interpreting Easter

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
Perspective and interpretation are everything.  We do not just recognize and know certain facts about things; we have a perspective on those facts and interpret them into some kind of coherent story. 
 
            Nearly eleven years ago my wife and two of my daughters were in a car accident.  We were returning home from my parents’ house in rural Iowa.  A car came from the east on a gravel road and did not slow down but blew through the stop sign, right in front of us.  There was nothing I could do.  I hit his rear quarter panel and his car literally spun like a top and came to a stop.  He and the girl in the passenger seat immediately hopped out of their car without a scratch or bruise on them.  My girls were in the very back seat and were fine.  My wife, however, tore her rotator cuff from the seat belt and the impact.  For me, ever since that day, my back has never been the same.  There are occasionally days when the pain and limitation are so bad that I can barely walk across the room.
 
            In the ten years since that accident I have replayed it over a thousand times in my head.  Maybe if only we had left a few minutes earlier or later from my parents’ house things would be different.  Maybe if I had only driven slower or faster.  But there really was nothing I could have done about it.  I have been downright angry more than once, blaming that stupid kid who changed my life.  In those thousand times of replaying the event, I have looked at it from my perspective, my wife’s perspective, the girls’ perspective, and even the dog’s perspective.  But in all those years of replaying the accident in my mind, just in the past two weeks God has given me a different view of that event.
 
            You see, in these past ten years I have been so deep into interpreting the accident from my perspective and my family’s perspective that I never even considered to look at it from the perspective of the driver of the other car.  It was as if God finally tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to see it all in a different way.  When I look at that accident from the other driver’s view, he was driving down a gravel road and was coming to a t-intersection.  There was no road on the other side of that stop sign.  What is there to this day is a large grain elevator.  He was driving at highway speeds when he went through the stop sign.  Had he blew through that sign and not been struck by my car, he and the passenger with him would have been certainly killed because they would have slammed into the elevator.  But, instead, I “happened” to come along and hit him in such a way that his car spun and literally stopped just feet from the grain elevator.
 
            That car accident actually saved two people’s lives.  All of a sudden my chronic low-level back pain and limitation seems a very small price to pay for the lives of two people.  I am now interpreting that event as God sending his servants, Tim and Mary, to a highway where two other people were on a collision course with death.  And he used us to literally stop it from happening.
 
            Perspective and interpretation are everything.  For many of the people in the first-century, the crucifixion of Jesus was just another death.  It all seemed like some tragic accident that Jesus did not deserve.  But it was no tragic accident.  God sent Jesus to the right place at the right time among people who were on a collision course with death.  And he took their place.  It was us who were behind the wheel and driving our lives recklessly, not knowing that we were facing imminent tragedy.  But Jesus came along and took our place.  He absorbed the punishment that we deserved so that we could live.
 
            My car accident was unique to me and to the others involved.  But the death of Christ is universal in its scope, having affected every single person on planet earth.  And God showed no favoritism.  The cross of Christ is for all kinds of people from every nation, every race, and every ethnic group.  We are invited by Holy Scripture to have a perspective on the cross as being able to affect deliverance from all wrongdoing and all misguided lives.  We are encouraged to interpret the resurrection of Jesus as bringing a new lease on life to millions of people.  We are to take those events of Jesus and see them as our redemption.
 

 

            So, then, our part in the whole affair is this:  Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.  That is the perspective and the interpretation of the death and resurrection of Jesus that we need.  Our only hope of life beyond the grave is Christ’s victory over death.  Christ is risen.  He is risen, indeed.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            I had someone mention to me on Easter Sunday how much he enjoys Easter music and Easter cantatas.  He ended the conversation by saying it is too bad we only get to sing resurrection songs once a year.  Here is my proposal:  then don’t just sing them once a year.  In fact, we ought to be rejoicing in God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, in these next several weeks.
 
            All the hopes and expectations of Christians are realized in Christ’s resurrection.  The good news of Easter cannot be contained or limited to a single day (Easter Sunday).  This is why, according to the Christian Calendar, Easter is only the first of fifty days of celebration called “Eastertide” which leads up to the day of Pentecost.  Eastertide is a season designed especially for exploring the new life we have in Jesus and the joyful Christian life we can all experience.
 
            Spring is the time of year that can give shape to the rest of our seasons.  Christ’s resurrection gives us a reason to rejoice; to hope; to persevere; to serve gladly, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.  Easter is not over; it is just beginning.  Throwing parties for Jesus is in order.  Inviting friends and family into your home just to celebrate life in God will not only be fun, it will be biblical.  Maybe some people outside the church look at Christians as uptight and repressed because we are not throwing the best parties and celebrations. 
 
We have the highest reason possible to celebrate loudly with great passion and joy; to paint the town red; to whoop it up; to raise the roof; to splurge and be effusive with our worship; to hail King Jesus not just today but all through Eastertide because Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Thank you for giving me a reason to celebrate with joy my Lord’s resurrection.  May I be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit and give the best party in the neighborhood; through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.