Praise the
Lord for this spectacular and stunning Spring season here in New York. The
flowering trees in the church grounds and fields are past their full bloom,
though some of the daffodils and tulips are still brilliant. Alice and I walked
on one of the local walking trails, bidding hello to some fat woodchucks and
listening to the sharp trill of blackbirds. The birds full of mirth. The
multicolor honeysuckle bushes are in full bloom. Praise the Lord for the way He
makes all things glorious in His time. The Lord blessed us in His House
yesterday. I shared through a power point about the mission trip to India.
Since I
have been home I have been able to talk to with grandchildren in Boston. I have
also heard from Sunita, who spent 3 days in Rome with Andy and Gabe. The Lord
blessed them in Rome, Italy with great and generous hospitality from friends.
They will be in Cyprus for some time.
We are
planning for an amazing gathering of women for luncheon Saturday noon. This
will be held at the Church Fellowship hall. Those who live in the area, please
join us. Please call the church office at 607-748-6329 to reserve a place at
the table. Julia Kellaway, from the Family Life Network, will be
speaking. This is still the Easter Season in the Church Calender.
This was
the First Easter Sunday I was away from the pulpit here in the USA. As part my
Easter celebrations in Orissa , India, I attended a early morning Easter parade
consisting mostly of youth. I attended an adult baptism service that was held in
a river. Several young believers were baptized by two local pastors. It was
time of great rejoicing. I preached in two churches that day, one in the
morning and the other at an afternoon celebration. It was a great thrill and
great treat. It is indeed a great privilege that we get to celebrate the
Resurrection of Jesus our Lord.
It is
written in the Gospel according to Mark that on the first Easter, the women went
to the tomb to pay their last respects to Jesus, who was dead. To their alarm,
the body of Jesus was not there. A "young man, dressed in a white robe" told
them, "You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified? Well, he isn't
here. He is raised. He is going ahead of you to Galilee."
Galilee is
an out of the way sort of place. It's where Jesus came from, but that's about
its only claim to fame. Jesus spent most of His ministry out in Galilee, the
"out back" of Judea, getting ready to go up to Jerusalem. All of Jesus'
disciples seem to have hailed from the Galilee. Jesus spent most of His time in
Galilee getting His disciples prepared to leave Galilee and go up to the capital
city with Him. There, in Jerusalem, He was crucified and there He rose, but
almost the moment He rose from the dead, He headed back to
Galilee.
One might
have thought that the first day of His resurrected life, the risen Christ might
have gone straight for the palace, to the seat of Roman power, and appeared
there. Yet, He didn't go to the palace, the White House, the
Kremlin, the Capitol. He went back to Galilee. Nobody special lived in
Galilee, nobody except the followers of Jesus, people like us.
The
resurrected Christ went back to, and appeared before, the very same rag tag
group of people who so disappointed Him, misunderstood Him, forsook Him and fled
into the darkness. He returned to His betrayers. He returns to
us.
In the Bible, the "proof" of the resurrection is not the absence
of Jesus' body from the tomb; it's the presence of Jesus to His
followers. On Easter, and in the days afterward, the risen
Christ showed up among those who were at work out in Galilee -- when He
"appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five
hundred brothers and sisters at one time, then to James, then to all the
apostles. Last of all . . . He appeared also to the great persecutor and
murderer of the church, Paul. All the time the risen Christ was only doing
what the crucified Jesus always did: He came back to us.
Jesus is
the Good Shepherd who doesn't just sit back and wait for the lost sheep to head
back home. He goes out, risks everything, beats the bushes night and day, and
finds that lost sheep! On Easter, He came back, back to the very ones who
had forsaken, betrayed, and crucified Him. He came back to
us.
A student,
asked to summarize all the Gospel in a few words, responded: In the Bible, it
gets dark, then it gets very, very dark, then Jesus shows
up.
In life,
in death, in life beyond death, this is our hope. The risen Christ came back to
us.
In Him
,
Brown
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