Rev. Dustin ParkerHe is Risen Indeed! SO WHAT?
Concordia and Our Saviors
Lutheran Churches
Easter Sunday, April 23, 2011
The Destination – We are there… with Him!
Colossian 3:1-4
† IN JESUS NAME †
May you grasp this day, that this simple truth changes your life in way beyond your comprehension: The truth is this Praise God ! He is Risen!
The Journey’s End….Now what?
Pastor Parker’s Paschal Parable
The car is unpacked, the suitcases are in the closets, everyone has had a chance to use the restrooms and check out the place. The long journey is over, no more “are we there … yet?” the family vacation has begun.
It seems like everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move, to suggest the first thing to do. You’re supposed to be relaxing, and yet there is a tension in the air, as your body and mind almost refuse to realize you have arrived. It is time to enjoy the fresh air, time to enjoy each other’s company, it is time to rest, and relax.
Yet who will be the first to break the ice, the first to realize what you all know. You are on vacation! Who is the first to let down their hair, to relax, to en-joy this time you have waited for, and for which you have planned and saved? Who is the first to go get into a bathing suit, and head to the pool or the beach? Or to ask dad for a couple of bucks to go play video games? Or head down to the boardwalk?
Easter Sunday is like the beginning of a vacation. All the hard work is now over! God our Father and the sacrifice of our Brother/Savior/Lord Jesus Christ accomplished what it took to get us to this point of rest. We have arrived at the destination, and we the family of God, are gathered together with Him!
We are Here – so what now?
Do we just sit around and wait?
Living in this New Resurrection life?
For the next 7 weeks, we will proclaim “ALLELUIA! He is Risen!” (response) and then I am going to ask “now what?”
Like the family that is officially arrived at their vacation destination, gotten unpacked, checked out the place, the question looms around… “now what?”
I suppose we could, like most of us on vacation, think about what we left behind. The chores at home, the work that we know is piling up, the things only “we” can deal with. Many of us treat church like it is that vacation, something to go to like a vacation, a place to recharge once or twice a year, or once or twice a month. We expect sermons to be motivational speeches that will cause us to sin less, or love more. We all would say we want to spend more time in God’s word, and praying, and doing good things to help those who have… well less.
But that is treating Easter like a vacation that we will have to return from – and it is not. It is more like retirement – a major change in life, that should change our priorities, our relationships, our stress levels, our lives. Paul put it this way, in our reading from Colossians:
3:1 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2 Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
This isn’t law my friends, it isn’t a live this way or you are condemned to hell. It is the purest of gospel messages.
The stuff of this world, yeah, we have to deal with it, but Jesus has freed us from it consuming us, from absorbing us, we don’t have to be assimilated into it, and programmed to react this way or that.
What we are freed to, is the most glorious of things, to see the Creator of the Universe do his work in us. To walk with a God who redeems all things, and makes them new. Who can change mourning into dancing! Who can change sorrow into joy! Who can heal the relationships that are broken, who can give strength to the weary. That is the action Paul is talking about, that is the perspective of Christ.
Good Friday is about Salvation, Easter is about our being sanctified – rising with Christ as a holy priesthood, a chosen people! Where we that God can and does use everything in our lives for good. He even can take betrayals and the most evil of actions, and use them.
That is what the cross is, really – an incredible example of how God can turn something man meant for evil into the greatest blessing.
So if you are serious about living this new resurrected life, this life that began for you when you were crucified with Christ, when you died to your sin, then act like it – by focusing on that which Christ is doing.
Get this – this old life – dead –
New life – invisible to spectators
He is your life and someday!
Some of you are thinking, that this is a pretty intense call – this call to holy, resurrected living. To taking, for the moment, our eyes off our all consuming lives, and to focus on what Christ is doing.
A few days ago, someone asked me about one of the readings during holy week. Specifically it talked about the new covenant. I put it on your outline:
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34 (ESV)
The questions were asking about when God would write that law on our hearts, and when we are His people, and He is our God, and really, when would we get to the point where we all didn’t need to teach each other to “know the Lord”.
In a way, it is very true right now, even if it is not so obvious. That is Paul’s point as well.
I mentioned before that Easter is like the early moments of a vacation, but from Easter on, it is more like retirement. It is a drastic change – our old life is no more. A life subject to the pressures of sin, and its accompanying guilt and shame – that’s gone. A life subject to death, and its accompany fear – it is dead as well. And Satan’s power – to tempt us, what good is that, if all that happens is.
That is why Christian sermons and worship services don’t have to be about the 5 things to make your life perfect, or the 12 steps to a perfect marriage, or How to live a Holy Life. Why should I tell you 6 secrets to overcome the sin in your lives?
Why speak to that which is dead, which we were freed from at the cross?
The resurrected life, the perspective of God is that we are His people, that He is our God. We need to know Him, to look and see that He is doing what He is promised and we can count on Him to complete it. Do I need to continue to teach you to know the Lord God still?
Or do we need to come to His table and feast? Do we need to recall that which happened to us in our baptism, do we need to rejoice that we are not alone, but live in the presence of a living and reigning God?
That’s the “so what”. Christ has arrived at His destination, He accomplished all He came to do – to free us and bring us into the presence of Almighty. And while we are in His presence now, there will be a day when He comes back. Not as a babe, but to complete that which He began in us.
O what a glorious day it is, to realize that Christ has risen!
O what a glorious day it will be, when He returns, and we too shall rise in His glory!
AMEN!
Lutheran Churches
Easter Sunday, April 23, 2011
The Destination – We are there… with Him!
Colossian 3:1-4
† IN JESUS NAME †
May you grasp this day, that this simple truth changes your life in way beyond your comprehension: The truth is this Praise God ! He is Risen!
The Journey’s End….Now what?
Pastor Parker’s Paschal Parable
The car is unpacked, the suitcases are in the closets, everyone has had a chance to use the restrooms and check out the place. The long journey is over, no more “are we there … yet?” the family vacation has begun.
It seems like everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move, to suggest the first thing to do. You’re supposed to be relaxing, and yet there is a tension in the air, as your body and mind almost refuse to realize you have arrived. It is time to enjoy the fresh air, time to enjoy each other’s company, it is time to rest, and relax.
Yet who will be the first to break the ice, the first to realize what you all know. You are on vacation! Who is the first to let down their hair, to relax, to en-joy this time you have waited for, and for which you have planned and saved? Who is the first to go get into a bathing suit, and head to the pool or the beach? Or to ask dad for a couple of bucks to go play video games? Or head down to the boardwalk?
Easter Sunday is like the beginning of a vacation. All the hard work is now over! God our Father and the sacrifice of our Brother/Savior/Lord Jesus Christ accomplished what it took to get us to this point of rest. We have arrived at the destination, and we the family of God, are gathered together with Him!
We are Here – so what now?
Do we just sit around and wait?
Living in this New Resurrection life?
For the next 7 weeks, we will proclaim “ALLELUIA! He is Risen!” (response) and then I am going to ask “now what?”
Like the family that is officially arrived at their vacation destination, gotten unpacked, checked out the place, the question looms around… “now what?”
I suppose we could, like most of us on vacation, think about what we left behind. The chores at home, the work that we know is piling up, the things only “we” can deal with. Many of us treat church like it is that vacation, something to go to like a vacation, a place to recharge once or twice a year, or once or twice a month. We expect sermons to be motivational speeches that will cause us to sin less, or love more. We all would say we want to spend more time in God’s word, and praying, and doing good things to help those who have… well less.
But that is treating Easter like a vacation that we will have to return from – and it is not. It is more like retirement – a major change in life, that should change our priorities, our relationships, our stress levels, our lives. Paul put it this way, in our reading from Colossians:
3:1 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2 Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
This isn’t law my friends, it isn’t a live this way or you are condemned to hell. It is the purest of gospel messages.
The stuff of this world, yeah, we have to deal with it, but Jesus has freed us from it consuming us, from absorbing us, we don’t have to be assimilated into it, and programmed to react this way or that.
What we are freed to, is the most glorious of things, to see the Creator of the Universe do his work in us. To walk with a God who redeems all things, and makes them new. Who can change mourning into dancing! Who can change sorrow into joy! Who can heal the relationships that are broken, who can give strength to the weary. That is the action Paul is talking about, that is the perspective of Christ.
Good Friday is about Salvation, Easter is about our being sanctified – rising with Christ as a holy priesthood, a chosen people! Where we that God can and does use everything in our lives for good. He even can take betrayals and the most evil of actions, and use them.
That is what the cross is, really – an incredible example of how God can turn something man meant for evil into the greatest blessing.
So if you are serious about living this new resurrected life, this life that began for you when you were crucified with Christ, when you died to your sin, then act like it – by focusing on that which Christ is doing.
Get this – this old life – dead –
New life – invisible to spectators
He is your life and someday!
Some of you are thinking, that this is a pretty intense call – this call to holy, resurrected living. To taking, for the moment, our eyes off our all consuming lives, and to focus on what Christ is doing.
A few days ago, someone asked me about one of the readings during holy week. Specifically it talked about the new covenant. I put it on your outline:
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34 (ESV)
The questions were asking about when God would write that law on our hearts, and when we are His people, and He is our God, and really, when would we get to the point where we all didn’t need to teach each other to “know the Lord”.
In a way, it is very true right now, even if it is not so obvious. That is Paul’s point as well.
I mentioned before that Easter is like the early moments of a vacation, but from Easter on, it is more like retirement. It is a drastic change – our old life is no more. A life subject to the pressures of sin, and its accompanying guilt and shame – that’s gone. A life subject to death, and its accompany fear – it is dead as well. And Satan’s power – to tempt us, what good is that, if all that happens is.
That is why Christian sermons and worship services don’t have to be about the 5 things to make your life perfect, or the 12 steps to a perfect marriage, or How to live a Holy Life. Why should I tell you 6 secrets to overcome the sin in your lives?
Why speak to that which is dead, which we were freed from at the cross?
The resurrected life, the perspective of God is that we are His people, that He is our God. We need to know Him, to look and see that He is doing what He is promised and we can count on Him to complete it. Do I need to continue to teach you to know the Lord God still?
Or do we need to come to His table and feast? Do we need to recall that which happened to us in our baptism, do we need to rejoice that we are not alone, but live in the presence of a living and reigning God?
That’s the “so what”. Christ has arrived at His destination, He accomplished all He came to do – to free us and bring us into the presence of Almighty. And while we are in His presence now, there will be a day when He comes back. Not as a babe, but to complete that which He began in us.
O what a glorious day it is, to realize that Christ has risen!
O what a glorious day it will be, when He returns, and we too shall rise in His glory!
AMEN!
