Easter Eve...

It is Easter eve and I am thinking about the significance of what we will celebrate tomorrow. My mind is wrought with the question, "are we really celebrating Resurrection Sunday?" Has Easter become just another Sunday with a few more people and a couple of seasonal hats sprinkled about the sanctuary.

I am wondering and asking myself, “do I really believe in the resurrection of Christ or am I just practicing a superficial holiday?” It's not that I don't want to believe, I really do want to believe but some how in the grand scheme of life, little is placed on Christ' bodily resurrection. I don't often consider the power of a life lifted from a tomb to walk, converse and eat once again. I am often reminded of His love and sacrifice and I regularly remember His death and the power of forgiveness; however, being dead and coming back to life alludes my thoughts and drifts away, that is until this day we call Easter.

Resurrection is difficult for us because it is completely supernatural. It is a divine act that is only produced through a divine God. Yet, that is exactly what we profess and so we make the yearly pilgrimage to our place of worship to encounter once again the Risen King.

My point in asking and wondering is to encourage you to deal with these questions in order that you might be empowered to believe. To be reminded that the God of the Universe commands life and if He chooses, can give life again. Tomorrow we will profess this belief with music and preaching, with readings, creeds and proclamations. We will be reminded that we serve a "Risen Savior." It is one thing to talk about resurrection once a year, but a much different proposition to live for a resurrected King throughout the year.

I long to encounter something transformational tomorrow as we celebrate Easter. I trust that the power necessary to lift the Messiah from a borrowed tomb will be present in houses of worship around the world and we will in one accord truly celebrate something magnificent…something transcendent…our Risen King.

Let's join together to declare that "Christ the Lord is Risen today."

Blessings,Mark...