From Easter worship

We live in a radical time when people are asking what it truly means to be a follower of Christ, rather than just living as “cultural Christians.” People are wondering what the Kingdom of God is all about in the here and now.

The Church has experienced many such times before—throughout church history there is a pattern of people seeking and hungering for God, followed by times when the church tends to settle into routines, and in a general sense, the church loses its edge, its passion.

But every few hundred years, there is a resurgence, when people begin to ask hard questions, truly seeking to see and know and experience God in real and powerful and new ways.

We are in such a time now. We look at the world around us and realize that being “saved” does not just have to do with being "safe from Hell."

This is the time of year where the Church celebrates its birth. The Church was born out of the need to share the good news of God's love for us--radical love that changed life in the here and now as well as the hereafter.

That news prompted people to leave jobs and families and ways of life. It prompted them to hear God's calling in their life. It led them on missionary journeys; it led them to sacrifice and give to support the spread of the gospel and the building of the church. It spawned questions and arguments over how to live, and what it meant to live in the Way of Christ.

As we take communion together, allow it to be a symbol of the new life that is born in you. Let the bread nourish you and the wine refresh you. This wine is not sour like the wine we drank last week, it is sweet and refreshing.

Imagine this as an awakening in your own life, let it tune your senses to hear, see, smell, and taste God. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, and also the chance for resurrection in our own lives.

Ask God to lead you to the next step in the resurrection of your life. And give thanks for the gift of new life that Christ has given to us.

Each time we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we are joining ourselves to Jesus, our Lord. We remember his life, honor his death, and celebrate his resurrection. We also celebrate the resurrection that God gives to us; and we look forward, with hope, to the final resurrection when all will be made right, and God’s kingdom will reign in full.