Easter 2011 is drawing to a close.  This is my eleventh such occasion with my current congregation.  You would think by now that nothing would faze me on Easter but you would be wrong.  It is a great thing to look out to see all of the families coming together in one place.  Several of our families filled up at least one row if not two.  Yes, there were Easter hats among our people today.  I look forward to that part of the tradition every year.  Nothing says it's Easter better than a hat.  We even added a new member today although it was not easy.  A man was standing in my blind spot during our time for welcoming new members.  Maybe he was not standing there too long.  Vision in my right eye was seriously changed during my eye operation nearly nineteen years ago.  Anyway, the point is to say we had one of our better holiday worship experiences today.  I am grateful.

Sunrise services are never my strong suit.  But there I was early this morning at our Christian church in town ready to do my part.  We took communion this morning which is always meaningful to me.  Doing this is one of my most cherished events in church life.  Several of us read through the story of how God worked in history to bring about our salvation.  I got to read the words of Jesus when we reached that point.  Time was left for a short rest prior to heading to my church for the rest of the morning.  Even people who are not drawn to the early morning time can find inspiration for the day.  It did my heart good to just reflect on all that today means before starting my role as a minister.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that my goal is to be a believer first before putting on my work hat.  Few days are better for doing just that than Easter.

I do believe strongly in the ressurection of Jesus as described in scripture.  We talked some about various ideas on that topic both in the class I taught this morning as well as in our evening service.  Attempts to explain away the literal, historical, physical ressurection just fall short compared to accepting the story as it is.  No doubt exists in my mind that Jesus did indeed die due to the injuries suffered in his trial and execution.  Those wounds and contusions were so great that it would be impossible for a human being to recover to the point of being able to revive then move the stone away.  Some say this is what happened and that Jesus lived the remainder of his life in a solitary manner.  Do you really think those who followed Him would allow for that possibility?  Odds seem good that Jesus could not get away secretly nor be able to hide his identity as time moved ahead.  Also remember that if the body of Jesus was indeed stolen that the full weight of the Jewish leaders and the Roman government would be tasked to find where it was.  It would be almost impossible for anyone to keep that grave a secret with all of the pressure directed at the disciples.  Deception seems to be an illogical option for putting that idea to rest. 

Maybe would we are better served taking the story of Easter at face value.  God wants to be involved with humanity to the extreme.  Jesus is the promised One to make all of this possible.  God raised Jesus from the dead to continue confirming His promises.  This is a solid option from the historical perspective.  Those early believers begin telling the story of Easter.  The apostle Paul will be declaring this reality some twenty years and more after the actual miracle.  We are on firm ground to accept the ressurection by faith.  It also makes a huge difference in our personal lives.  Hope is based on a divine action in the past at Easter.  We can live our lives knowing full well that God will not neglect much less abandon us.  Just keep in mind that Easter does not automatically mean life will be fair or easy.  We who believe still exist in an ugly world where things go terribly wrong.  Easter does mean God always has the last, eternal word.  That as they say is a fact.

Bro. Trey