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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">A Year of Rehearsals</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I had a good friend back in Memphis
years ago, one of my fellow rock-and-roll musicians, who only attended
church on Easter Sunday. I asked him once why he didn't go to church
more often than that, and I will never forget his reply. He said,
"Johnny, you know how I hate rehearsals. Why should I sit through 51
rehearsals? I want to see the real thing, and that's what happens on
Easter Sunday!" An interesting point of view, isn't it?</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Think about it. Easter is without a
doubt "show time" for the church! Church choirs spend months in
preparation for that one Sunday when we celebrate what is for Christians
the central event in the history of the world, the resurrection of
Jesus. The rest of the Sundays in the year can seem like rehearsals. But
is that such a bad thing?<br>
<br>
Johnny Dean, The Benefit of the Doubt, wwwSermons.com<br>
_____________________________________________________</div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">What's the Good Word?</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">A student from Korea was complaining
about how difficult it is to learn the English language. He felt that
American idioms were particularly difficult to comprehend. He said that
he had studied English for nine years in preparation for attending the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. On his first day at the
school, as he was walking across the campus, an American student
casually greeted him with, "Hi, What's the good word?" The Korean boy
stopped dead in his tracks. He thought to himself: "I don't know the
good word! You would have thought that after nine years of studying
English, someone would have told me what "the good word' was!"</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br>
Later, trying to solve this puzzle, he decided to turn the tables and
ask an American, "What's the good word?" and listen to his reply. So,
approaching a fellow student, he repeated, "Hi! What's the good word?"
The quick response was, "Oh, not much. How about you?"<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">It was obvious that neither of these
students knew what the good word was. It's a rather plastic greeting.
But I can tell you the good word for today: Christ the Lord is risen.
That's the Good Word. And because it is; it says a great deal about our
lives.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Brett Blair and King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sermons.com/"><font color="#800080">www.Sermons.com</font></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">_______________________</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">A New Shalom</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When Jesus appeared to the disciples,
his greeting was, "Peace be unto you." The Hebrew word shalom, for
"peace," is a most comprehensive word, covering the full realm of
relationships in daily life and expressing an ideal state of life. The
word suggests the fullness of well-being and harmony untouched by ill
fortune. The word as a blessing is a prayer for the best that God can
give to enable a person to complete one's life with happiness and a
natural death. If the concept of shalom became all too casual and
light-hearted with no more significance than a passing greeting, Jesus
came to give it new meaning. At Bethlehem God announced that peace would
come through the gift of God's unique Son. The mission and ministry of
our Lord made it quite clear that Jesus had come to introduce the rule
of God and to order peace for the world.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Harry N. Huxhold, Which Way To Jesus?, CSS Publishing</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">____________________________<br>
<br>
Peace Be With You...It Already Is!</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Theologian Karl Barth once remarked
that to say the old line from the creed, "I believe in the Holy Catholic
Church" does not mean that we believe in the church. It means rather to
believe that God is present and at work in the church, that "in this
assembly, the work of the Holy Spirit takes place. ... We do not believe
in the Church: but we do believe that in this congregation the work of
the Holy Spirit becomes an event."</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Barth's words rang true for me some
years ago, when I was invited by a church in a nearby town to be the
worship leader at a special evening communion service. The church staff
had planned this service to be educational as well as worshipful. The
idea was that, first, the congregation would gather in the sanctuary and
I would give a brief talk about the meanings of the Lord's Supper.
Then, we would go into the fellowship hall and be seated around tables
for the service itself.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">At each table there would be the flour
and other ingredients to form the dough for the communion loaves. The
plan called for each table to prepare a loaf and, while the loaves baked
in the ovens of the church kitchen, the people at each table were to
engage in various exercises designed to get them talking about their
experiences in the faith.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">It was a good idea, but like many
well-planned events, things looked better on the drawing board than they
turned out in reality. There were problems. Children at many tables
began to play in the baking ingredients, and white clouds of flour
floated around the room coating everybody and everything. There were
delays in the kitchen, and the communion bread baked with agonizing
slowness. Some of the tables ran out of things to say; children grew
weary and fussy; the room was filled with commotion and restlessness.
The planners had dreamed of an event of excitement, innovation, peak
learning, and moving worship. What happened was noise, exhaustion, and
people making the best of a difficult situation. In other words, despite
the rosy plans, it was the real church worshipping down there in the
church basement.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Finally, the service ended, and, with
no little relief, I was able to pronounce the benediction. "The peace of
Christ be with you all," I said, and just as I did, a child's voice
from somewhere in the room called out strong and true, "It already is."</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Just that -- "It already is" -- but
with those words the service was transformed into an event of joy and
holy mystery. That small voice captured what the Gospel of John is
trying to say. In the midst of a church that can claim nothing for
itself, a church of noise, confusion, weariness, and even fear, the
risen Christ comes to give peace. The peace of Christ be with you?
Because the risen Christ comes to inhabit our empty places, then, as the
child said, "It already is," and the church with nothing becomes the
church with everything.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Thomas G. Long, Whispering The Lyrics, CSS Publishing</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">_________________________<br>
<br>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Honey...It's Me</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Perhaps you've heard the story of the
Yugoslavian judge who was electrocuted when he reached up to turn on the
light while standing in the bathtub. No, I'm not cruel or weird, let me
tell you the rest of the story. This guy’s poor wife found his body
sprawled on the bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead and was placed in
a preparation room under a crypt in the town cemetery for twenty-four
hours before burial.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Well, and this is the part I love, in
the middle of the night, the judge came to. The judge looked around at
his surroundings and suddenly realized where he was. He got pretty
excited and rushed over to alert the guard. But instead of being any
help, the guard was terrified and promptly ran off.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Fortunately, though, the guard
returned with a friend, and they released the newly-revived judge. The
judge's first thought was to phone his wife and reassure her that he
really wasn't dead. Unfortunately, he got no farther than, "Honey...
it's me," when his wife screamed and fainted.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">So, he decided that the best course of
action was to enlist some friends. He went to the houses of several
friends; but because they all had heard the news from his distraught
wife, they all doubted that he was really alive. They were all convinced
he was a ghost.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Finally, in a last desperate effort,
he contacted a friend in another city who hadn't heard about his death.
And that person was able to convince his family and friends that the
judge really was alive.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">That story almost sounds like one of
the Gospel writers could have written it, doesn't it? It sure sounds
like the passage from John this morning.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Traditional Story. We have not been able to verify the veracity of this story.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">____________________</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Just Because We Can't See It</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">A junior high school teacher was
telling her class about evolution and how the way everything in the
world was formed proved that God doesn't exist. She said, "Look out the
window. You can't see God, can you?" The kids shook their heads. "Look
around you in this room. You can't see God, can you?" The kids shook
their heads. "Then our logical conclusion is that God doesn't exist,
does He?" she asked at last, certain that she had won her audience over.</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">But one girl from the back of the classroom said, "Miss Smith, just because we can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist….</div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The conclusion to this illustration and for many additional illustrations and sermons for Easter 2 can be accessed at <a title="http://www.sermons.com/" target="_blank" href="http://www.sermons.com/"><font color="#800080">www.Sermons.com</font></a>.</div>
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