Pastor’s Corner – April 2014

This month we will celebrate Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter.  We commemorate the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, his teachings during that last week, the commemoration of Communion, and the Death and Resurrection.  We are currently in the period of Lent when we examine our actions and practices and strive to put them in balance with what God created us to be.  Easter is the culmination of that journey as well as the revelation of God’s Grace.

We often see the death of Jesus on the cross as the execution of God’s judgment against humanity covered by the sacrifice of Christ.  We think that in order to appease the anger of God.  Yet the concept that God would execute His own Son as an act of punishment can create a sense of wrongness.  How can a God of love kill his own Son?

What if we turn it around from an act of anger into an act of love?  What if we see Jesus’ willingness to face the death of crucifixion, not as our punishment, but rather as a way to demonstrate the overwhelming love that God has for us?  Jesus gave His life in order for God to show that the power of Empire and the fear of death is not the final Word.  Rather, God is greater than any human authority and Life is not something that transient.

By seeing Good Friday and Easter in this light, we fall into congruence with the teachings of Jesus.  We become truly liberated.  The truth will set you free from the power of fear and open the door to love of God, self and all of humanity.  The miracle of Easter is not limited to the empty tomb of Jesus, but to the empting of the tombs we have built around ourselves.  Find the culmination of Lent in the opening of all the tombs of our lives, releasing us to be the children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus.  As HE arose, so can we.

Shalom,  Darrell

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