<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Only Easter Some Will Know</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Jesus returns from
the dead and meets his disciples in different places: the garden, the
Emmaus Road, the seashore, the Upper Room. He witnesses to them that he
is alive, this guy back from the dead with a body. He isn't content to
send them a postcard from heaven: HAVING A GREAT TIME. WISH YOU WERE
HERE. No. He shows up among them as his own witness.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>And he recruits as
witnesses those other people with bodies. He wants them to move out and
tell everyone who will listen and everyone who won't that bodies count,
that he's back from the dead with a body, threatening them with life.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Those who recognize
his witness become witnesses themselves. They put their bodies on the
line. They become contagious with the forgiveness they've caught,
carriers of resurrection.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>That's what this
back-to-life Jesus wants of us: not names on a list, or what someone has
called "pew potatoes." Jesus wants us as witnesses. Not airy spirits or
pious ghosts, but bodies like his own with wounds to show, bodies that
witness to resurrection, threatening the world with life. For the only
Easter some people may ever see is the Easter they see in you and me.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Charles Hoffacker, A Guy With a Body</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_____________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Taste and See</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>An elderly woman
made her living selling artificial fruit. One day a customer complained
the fruit she sold was not realistic enough. She pointed to an apple,
saying it was too red, too round and too big to be a real apple. At that
point the artificial fruit lady picked up the apple and proceeded to
eat it.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The resurrection of
Jesus, throughout the years has been critically examined, judged by
authorities, and editorialized by writers, and the conclusion of most is
that it is simply an event which can not be proven and probably too
good to be true. It may look like an apple but in actuality it is
artificial fruit, they conclude. But if you will pick it up and take a
bite you come to know that he really did rise from the grave. He is
alive. He is listening to our prayers. He is ready to serve when that
service deals with the human heart in need of a shepherd's guidance and
love.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>George Bernard
Shaw, the famous playwright, was handed a newly written play by a
fledgling playwright. Shaw was asked to give the young man a criticism
of the work a few days later. "How did you like it?" asked the author.
"I fell asleep reading it," said Shaw. "Sleep is my comment on your
work."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>My friend there is
nothing boring about the resurrection. Easter dawns upon a world hidden
in darkness. Easter awakens every sleeper with the news that preacher of
peace, the Prince of </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Power and the Lord
of Love has appeared. Christianity is real. Christianity is alive.
Christianity is anything but boring. Let us all wake up and smell the
roses. Let us resolve to live our lives as if Jesus were a guest in our
homes, workplaces and businesses. The truth is that the Lord is here,
there and everywhere. He is alive. He is our Risen Lord to whom we offer
our discipleship with love.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The song goes,
"They'll know we are Christians by our love." Let us be about our
Father's business as we serve him with joy. Let us show and tell others
the good news of the gospel.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Brett Blair, <a __removedlink__1730891622__href="http://www.eSermons.com" target="_blank">www.eSermons.com</a>,
adapted from Charles Michael Mills, To Dawn: Sermons For Lent And
Easter Cycle B Gospel Texts, Lima: CSS Publishing Company, Inc.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>He Was Not a Ghost</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>While in their joy
they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you
anything here to eat?" (Luke 24:41). And now he has made the sacramental
moment back into a meal.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>That is so Luke.
The Physician. Mr. Everything-is-flesh-and-blood; you're either poor or
you're not poor; you're either hungry or you're not hungry; you're
either sick or you're not sick; none of the in-between "Well, maybe
we're poor in a spiritual sense." For Luke it's always a question of
people's physical well-being. And physically, Jesus, who on Good Friday
was completely dead, is now so completely alive that he wants something
to eat. He is not a ghost. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>There was some talk
in the early church that maybe he was a ghost when he came back. He was
not a ghost. He was not a shadow of his former self; he was his former
self restored to life, victorious over death. This is not a metaphysical
encounter, but a physical one. It was not an illusion, not a dream, but
flesh and bone and blood. <br>
<br>
Keith Grogg, A Ghost Does Not Have Flesh and Bones<br>
________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Living Christ</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>As a young man,
Mahatma Gandhi studied in London. After learning about Christianity, and
after reading the Sermon on the Mount, he decided that Christianity was
the most complete religion in the world. It was only later, when he
lived with a Christian family in East India, that he changed his mind.
In that household he discovered that the word rarely became flesh --
that the teaching of Jesus rarely became the reality of Jesus.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>How "fleshy" is
Jesus in our congregations? How persuasive is our teaching? How
passionate is our preaching? How much do our hearts burn within us when
the scriptures are opened to us? And how often do we recognize the
stranger as the living Christ in our midst? <br>
<br>
Susan R. Andrews, "Holy Heartburn," article in the Christian Century</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Go to the World</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Jesus did not command the whole world to go to church. Jesus commanded his church to go to the whole world.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Traditional</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Christ Understands Us</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The gospels of the
New Testament do not demand that we understand Christ. Rather, they
offer the burden-lightening insight that Christ understands us. We do
not have to understand Easter to experience Easter.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Christ's capacity
for understanding defies our comprehension. This one who inspires
magnificent visions also ministers amid shattered dreams. This one known
as the Prince of Peace does not shy away from chaos and conflict. This
one who taught us to pray accepts people who are so troubled that they
can't pray. This one who offers salvation identifies with people
confounded by feelings of lostness. This one who offers unmatched
encouragement knows better than any other the depths of discouragement.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Do you hear? Do you
grasp the meaning? If you did not sense the joy of Easter morning, if
you have not felt Christ rise, if you cannot shout hallelujah, that does
not mean that you must drop your head and take off toward Emmaus or
some other place to give up. Christ understands. He understands you. So,
Christ appears.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The presence of
Christ among us does not depend upon the quality of our understanding of
Christ or even upon the nature of our reception of his presence. Christ
appears in the midst of people not even looking for him.<br>
<br>
C. Welton Gaddy, For Those Who Missed Easter<br>
_________________________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Secret of Power</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The story is told
of the explorer who some years ago had just returned to his country from
the Amazon. The people at home were eager to learn all about the vast
and mighty river and the country surrounding it. How he wondered, could
he ever describe it to them - how could he ever put into words the
feelings that flooded into his heart when he saw the exotic flowers and
heard the night sounds of the jungle. How could he communicate to them
the smells the filled the air and the sense of danger and excitement
that would come whenever he and his fellows explorers encountered
strange animals or paddled through treacherous rapids?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>So the explorer did
what all good explorers do - he said to the people, "go and find out
for yourselves what it is like", and to help them he drew a map of the
river pointing out the various features of its course and describing
some of the dangers and some of the routes that could be used to avoid
those dangers.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The people took the map and they framed and hung it on the wall of the local science museum so that everyone could look at it...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this illustration and many additional illustrations and sermons can be accessed at <a __removedlink__1730891622__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
</span></font>