Sermons

http://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/41413-easter-appendix.mp3

“After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples.” John 21:1

For all intents and purposes, Easter is over. Not only is it not Easter anymore, it’s not even the Sunday after Easter, when the glow from the early morning encounter of the empty tomb is still lingering. Easter break is over and kids are back to school. Adults are back to work. The Easter egg that Grandpa hid especially well and then forgot where it was when total eggs found didn’t quite add up to total eggs hidden, is out of sight and out of mind. Maybe someone will find it in July if it starts to smell bad enough in the summer heat.

But the church does a tricky thing to us, declaring the entire time between Easter morning and Pentecost Sunday, May 19, to be included in the season of Easter. All seven weeks of it. Resurrection will not go away easily.

The passage from John 21 appears to be something of an appendix to John’s telling of the gospel. Jesus has been crucified, is risen, appears to Mary, then the male disciples as they huddle behind locked doors. Then he appears again to...

Blessed are the… – Easter – 3/31/13 – Luke 24:1-12

http://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/33113-blessed-are-the.mp3

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

I recently came across a short quote that goes like this:

“If we wish to quench our thirst, we must lay aside books which explain thirst and take a drink.” (Jean Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence)

For this Easter morning we could modify this slightly and say, If we wish to know resurrection, we must lay aside books which explain resurrection, and experience it for our ourselves.

But this puts us in a bit of a difficult situation. Our Bible, the book of books, is the central witness we have for the resurrection. This year we hear from Luke’s account of the events on Easter morning. On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women come to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. But they find the stone rolled away, with no body. Instead, they encounter two men in dazzling clothes who say to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” This is what it says in the good book, but this is hardly an explanation for resurrection. It’s more the...

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