<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18904">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...Theodore Wardlaw has noticed the many times Luke uses the
word "but" in his telling of the Easter story. ...("Living by the Word:
Unnatural Event," <EM>The Christian Century,</EM> March 20, 2007). This "defiant
conjunction" gets in the face of every cynical, hopeless, harsh evaluation of
the state of the things and the meaning beneath them. It says that God isn't
through with things yet. God hasn't spoken the last word, not yet, not in our
situation.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This has to mean something to each one of us, then, when we
face the "empty tombs" of our lives: the losses and disappointments, heartbreaks
and failures, tragic deaths and prolonged illnesses, loneliness and despair.
Those tombs are our "Friday" lives, and Jesus shares them with us. But
(there's that word again, and again) Jesus also shares Sunday, and resurrection,
new life and new hope, with us. It wasn't a one-time thing, the resurrection of
Jesus. It was, instead, the dawning of a new day, and new life as
well.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...a little poem called "Anyway": a man named Kent Keith wrote
it, but they say that Mother Teresa had it framed on her wall, and she certainly
was someone who knew something about suffering and faithfulness (and doubt, we
have later come to understand) and, I suspect, resurrection and new
life, too. Like Mother Teresa (probably the only way I resemble her!), I too
have this poem framed on my office wall, and I really should get up out of my
chair and read it more often. It says, for example, "People are unreasonable,
illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway! The good you do will be forgotten
tomorrow. Do good anyway! Honesty makes you vulnerable. Be honest anyway! What
you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway! People really
need help but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway! If you do good,
people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good
anyway!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/april-4-2010.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/april-4-2010.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Kathryn Matthews Huey, 2010</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR><FONT size=4>Luke goes on to tell us the response of the apostles when
they heard the women’s Easter Sermon. Here’s how Luke describes their doubt and
skepticism: “But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not
believe them.” A couple of other translations employ the word “nonsense,”
instead of “an idle tale.” According to Dr Wm. Barclay: The word used is one
employed by Greek medical writers to describe the babbling of a fevered and
insane mind.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://dimlamp.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/sermon-easter-day-yr-c-2/"><FONT
size=4>http://dimlamp.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/sermon-easter-day-yr-c-2/</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson, 2010</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Your loved one dies and you're cast into the journey of grief,
and you ask, "Why did this happen? Where is God in all of this? How does my
faith help? What do I do now?" Well, as a pastor, I can provide the major theme.
Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God.
Nothing. Neither life nor death nor grief nor loss nor anything else. But I
can't provide the score. "What do I do now?" The answer is, "Improvise. Do the
next thing there is to do and trust God's love." Patrick Henry, author and
former professor of religion at Swarthmore College, has a wonderful phrase in
his recent book The Ironic Christian's Companion. He says, "I can't tell you
what the grace of God is. The most I can do is tell you what trusting it is
like." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Let us pray. <BR>Surprise us, O Living God, as you surprised
the women on that first Easter morning. ... Roll away every stone
threatening to entomb us in a rigid and timid faith. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://day1.org/468-sunday_morning_at_the_improv"><FONT
size=4>http://day1.org/468-sunday_morning_at_the_improv</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Homer Henderson, 2004</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times New Roman"><FONT
size=4>The oldest book in the Bible - the book of Job - asks a question which
applies to everyone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“IF A MAN
DIES, SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?”</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times New Roman"><FONT
size=4>It is this one question which separates us from all the rest of God’s
creatures.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Made in the image of
God, our hearts turn to the heavens and ask the question of Job, “When I
die…shall I live again?”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
animals don’t do that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Wondered
about my German Shepherd one morning, but he was just looking at a
squirrel.)</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.lectionarysermons.com/april_20=03.htm">http://www.lectionarysermons.com/april_20=03.htm</A> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>John Jewell, 2003</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><SMALL><U><STRONG><FONT size=4>A
Benediction</FONT></STRONG></U></SMALL></DIV>
<DIV align=left><SMALL><STRONG><U><FONT
size=4></FONT></U></STRONG></SMALL> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4><SMALL>O people of the Lord, you have been raised
with Christ! Go from</SMALL><BR><SMALL>this place with joy and rejoicing
in your hearts, for Christ is your</SMALL><BR></FONT><SMALL><FONT size=4>life
and his glory is your hope! Amen!</FONT></SMALL></DIV>
<DIV align=left><SMALL><FONT size=4></FONT></SMALL> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.lectionarysermons.com/april_1501.htm">http://www.lectionarysermons.com/april_1501.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>John Jewell, 2001</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>