Pastor's Message

May 2003

Does it make any difference?

We have just celebrated Easter, certainly the most important celebration on the Christian Calendar. We began to prepare for Easter by observing Lent, where some of us “gave up” favorite treats, or gave an extra evening a week to come to the church to participate in our fellowship meals and special mid-week services. Then on Palm Sunday we put our preparation into high gear with a special service, special songs, waving Palms and rejoicing. During the week that followed we remembered Christ’s Last Supper on Maundy Thursday and on Good Friday we remembered the death and crucifixion of our Lord through readings from Scripture and hymns. Easter Morning, some of us were up before dawn, way before dawn, as we prepared to welcome the day with Sunrise Services, and then it seemed like EVERYBODY was at either the 9:00 or 10:30 worship service! What a wonderful celebration!

But does it make any difference today? Or is it all over now, just another holiday weekend?

For some, this Easter may have been a little like the story about Joseph of Arimathea, where somebody supposedly says to him, “That was such a beautiful, hand-hewn tomb, so close to Jerusalem. I am sure it was worth a lot and cost you a great deal. Why did you just give it for someone else to be buried in?” To which Joseph replies, “Oh, he only needed it for the weekend.” This little story might make us smile, but if the wonderful news of Christ’s resurrection doesn’t make any difference in our lives, we have turned Easter into just another weekend.

Peter is well known to us in the crucifixion story as the disciple who denied Jesus three times. He had boldly told Jesus that he would go wherever Jesus went, even if it meant to death. But when the time came, when Jesus was being taken through the mockery of the trial that preceded his death, Peter failed. But we also know that when Christ arose, it made all the difference for Peter. He became bold, preaching not only on the steps and in the courts of the temple, but in fact, preaching to the leaders of the temple, the Sadducees, and defying their orders to remain silent (see Acts, chapters 4 and 5). Peter was so changed by the resurrection of Christ that he began to live a whole new life!

But this was not just a gift that Peter received. Peter himself clearly saw that this was a gift for everyone who followed Christ. He writes in the first verses of his first letter, “By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” He goes on to write about this living hope as our “inheritance” that is “kept in heaven” for those who are protected by God through faith. We might, at first glance, think that Peter is writing about the wonderful promise of eternal life, a promised future. But if we consider Peter’s boldness, his faithfulness, his vision for all people as he found himself leading the new church into new lands, then we know that the resurrection of Christ, and the promise of our resurrection, changed Peter dramatically in this life. For Peter, as well as for all the disciples, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead made all the difference for them in this life.

So does Easter make any difference for you today, now that Easter is “over?” Have you been blessed by the “new birth into living hope” that Peter writes about? Maybe you will not be blessed with the gift of bold preaching, as Peter was, but your new birth into living hope should take away your anxiety about the future, knowing it is in God’s hands. Your new birth into living hope should make it easier to get along with other people, because you know that God loves them, just as God loves you. Your new birth into living hope will also draw you into closer fellowship with others who have experienced this same new birth, which is the body of Christ, the Church.

“Does it mean nothing to all you who pass by?” are words that are used regarding the crucifixion of Christ. The same can be said for the celebration of Easter. Don’t just “pass by” this holiday. Let Easter make a difference in your life.