EASTER!!

This is the DAY! I got up early this morning and left the house without waking a grandchild, went to the only store open at this hour in town and bought my coffee and
went to the office. As I was driving to the store my mind reflected on the Easter bunnies left for the grandkids - cute on the outside but hollow inside! Yet that's kinda appropriate on Easter, for the tomb we know was empty. Only I hope that I'm never empty the risen Lord on the inside. In a few hours we'll start our celebrations with a sunrise service, although the sun will have risen much earlier and then we'll eat breakfast together before the AM worship. I'm sure we'll be much more comfortable and well fed than the women were when they went to the tomb, and we're not coming to anoint anyone's body, rather we're coming to be anointed by he who placed in a tomb. But what an experience that must have been for Mary Magdalene. Everyone had gone home, she was left there alone, except for the gardener; then when she's asked why she's there, she replies she's searching for the body of her Lord. Two things about this passage have always left me with searching myself. FIRST, she doesn't call him rabbi, teacher, lord or anything, she just says 'him,' - three times according to the NASB! Is this intentional by the author? Is it referring to the 'transition' in roles the risen Christ is wanting to have? Or is it simply taken for granted we know who she's referring to? To most it may not seem that significant, but to me it matters. Earlier in the same story as JOseph requests Jesus body from Pilate Jesus' name is used... SECOND, Mary asks the 'gardener' where he has placed the body of Jesus so she might take it away .. is she proposing that she herself, alone, will take the body? - and where is it that she would be taking it? There is something about that request, that if we will ponder it seems to raise more questions than answers ... yet isn't that the way our relationship with the risen Christ should be, more questions than answers, for when we get more answers than questions our relationship with 'him' begins to dull. May you have the bestest Easter celebration ever! I leave with all the questions to celebrate because the greatest question is already answered!

This mornings Easter message will center on the CROSS - the power of the CROSS.
..the CROSS is the Centre of our faith [1 Cor.1:17; 2:1-5]
..the CROSS is about Forgiveness
Celebrating COMMUNION!
..the CROSS is the gift that never stops Giving
..the CROSS is about Freedom
the cry of the Revolutionary War was: 'No King but Jesus'
..the CROSS points to our Future
'The way of the CROSS leads home' [hymn by Jessie Pounds]
..the CROSS wants to be our Compass!
HAPPY EASTER!