|
PASTOR’S PEN . . .
by
Pastor Dave Templin
Winston Churchill once said,
“History can be a great teacher. Yet, most of the time, we simply get up, brush
ourselves off, and learn nothing at all.”
William Willimon wonders, “Is
that the way we have treated Easter? Here is God’s great reversal of history,
the total dissolution of our march toward death, God’s great triumph over sin
and death, and what do we do? We get up, we brush ourselves off, and continue
our lives as if nothing of any earth shaking significance has happened.”
Perhaps we do not fully grasp
what has happened in Easter. Perhaps we have not allowed it to fully grasp us!
Easter sermons often point out
that the Easter story means that individual death is no longer the final chapter
of every human life, so that we no longer need to live today in fear of death in
the future.
Indeed, it is wonderful to
live daily with confidence that death here is not the last word of our existence
– that resurrection means a new life.
However, there is more to the
resurrection than new life. Resurrection is a whole new world begun – the
kingdom of God – not fully as we will know it in the future of eternity, but
already enough that we see it in the lives of people lived differently.
We see it in lives set free to
live counter to the prevailing values of world and society – set free to live
according to a new order. In the words of St. Francis of Assisi:
…Where there is hatred, let me
bring love.
Where there is injury, let me bring pardon. . . .
The resurrection of Jesus
assures us that God is present in
every
situation to manifest love, peace, right relationship, and abundance – a new
world order.
God may not remake such
situations in the snap of a finger, but we can be confident God is at work.
The resurrection is not the
climax of the gospel story. Therefore, we live in hope and recognize God’s
presence and work everywhere in the world today even as we await that great and
final Day, saying, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”
- Pastor Dave
|
