Thursday, January 24, 2008

What Easter TRULY is....the sermon.

Easter is still something that I love and truly rejoice about and remember when I was younger taking part in many activities of easter egg hunts and wanting to see it come cause I knew that I was going to get money or something from my parents and others in my family. Yet as we get older like we all do there are many things that we come to realize. Like santa clause not being real and that really making us feel bad or that the tooth fairy is really your parents trading your tooth out for some money and hoping it hasn't been there for a long time. I can already see many of you looking at this and going, " ok what is your point? ". My point is this as much as we love to celebrate the holidays and know how much fun it is when once a year we are able to be happy just for a glimpse of a moment and that we want to take photographs and remember them forever....there is one thing that we all forget about when we find ourselves in " Fantasy Land ". The one thing that we forget is that there is a reason for Christmas and there is also a reason for Easter. Later I will touch on the reason for Chistmas and it will almost recipicate what I am saying for Easter just a different conotation or story line. Although I do promise you that the people will stay the same in both stories so please stay tuned for that one!!:)

Yet let us take a look at Easter for one moment. Bunnies and candy and eggs being decorated. Is this not what we as materialistic, idol worshipping people do? We see less and less the true meaning of Easter coming forth. Look at the way we are raising our kids...teaching them that it is fun to paint eggs...eagerly watching them look for eggs with money or candy in them. What is the notion behind this trickery?

Easter is a time for celebration yes and we do have that right but it is the time to celebrate our freedom if we are christians. It is because of Jesus Christ sacrifice on the cross and the blood that is spilt that is the REAL reason behind Easter. We never read Jesus gathering Easter eggs or you never hear of him talking about a easter bunny. Jesus was sacrificed and died so that we could be free and it is that freedom that is through him that we all have or can have and that is the reason we should be celebrating.

During Easter there is a time that we as christians are called to sacrifice something whether it be big or small until Easter Sunday and this is a fasting time to reflect on how Christ sacrificed so much more for us....his life. Easter can be a great time for all and yet we are a world of complainers and complicators and judgemental indivituals. Christ never said that it was going to be easy but look how much he did for us just so that we could have eternal life with him. There is nothing more sacrificial then sacrificing your own life for others. He got flogged in public was made fun of in public and then had to walk all the way to his execution with the very instrument that was going to be his " death bed "....a heavy wooden cross. In his whole trip to Galgotha Jesus only stumbled three times and that is a maricle in of it's self for how badly he was beaten and torn apart and on top of all that he has a crown of thorns implanted into his skull with blood running down his face and the sun beating down on his blood soaked half naked body.

I challange each of us whether we are christian or not to just think about this and just truly think about what we can do to just for one time a year go back and reflect what this humble, selfless, gentle and absolute loving son of God did for each of us. As he walked that painful, dark and lonesome path he had each of us on his mind and went through everything cause he wants to see each one of us again when we pass from this world and are looking at him face to face in heaven.

Whether you are christian or not my prayer and challenge is to look at this story more carefully this easter and really make it a true attempt to not try to understand the logic of Christ love but to embrace him and give your love and gratitude back to him in whatever way you see fit.

The simple fact to easter is this....Christ died so that we as sinful as we can be on our darkest day always can wake up knowing we can be welcomed into eternal life and loved forever.


AMEN

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