Easter Week Message 2015

Easter Week Schedule

• April  2, Maundy Thursday Worship and Finger Food Pot-luck with music by the Bell Choir  (Worship at 6:00, meal to follow)
• April 3, Good Friday Worship at Taylor United Methodist Church, “Seven Last Words” 12-3 p.m. Pastor Hopkins Preaching on the 7th Word, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
• April 3, All Youth Movie Night and Good Friday discussion at 7:00
• April 4, Community Easter Parade and Party, Parade at 11:30, Volunteers needs from 10-2
• April 4, Interfaith Easter and Passover Singing at Convalescent Hospitals, Meet at Church at 4:00
• April 5, EasterSunday Worship, 10:00, Children’s Easter Egg Hunt follows worship

A good and busy week awaits us.  This year the proclamation on Easter Sunday will be taken from Mark 16:1-8. In Mark’s account of the the resurrection the woman who are going to the tomb to properly anoint Jesus’ body  worry about the stone that covers the tomb. It is big. It is heavy. How will they ever move it? In their worry they represent us and the way we worry about big issues, heavy concerns and daunting tasks. They arrive at the tomb to find the stone rolled away.  Again, they represent us, like the woman we are learning that God is always at work to address the issues, concerns and demands that weigh on us; working to provide a way forward, to lighten our load, to open closed doors. The young messenger at the empty tomb tells them that Jesus has gone ahead of them to Galilee and that should follow him there. Again, like us, they learn that while the empty tomb inspires and encourages us, it also requires something of us. It requires that we follow Jesus lead.  Thus, of much of the pain of the world, we can honestly say, it gets better. it gets better when we acknowledge our pain,  it gets better when carry that pain to the empty tomb, it gets better as we follow in the way of the Risen One.

An Easter Prayer

Our God, as we stand before the empty tomb, like Mary and the disciples we find it hard to believe that Christ rose from the dead. Forgive our unbelief. Take from our minds the shadows of doubt and help us to find in the midst of this world the Spirit of the living Christ. Amen.