Deacon Tom Writes,
“Awesome Easter Surprise!
There Is No Sense Like Nonsense”
For many people the story of
that first Easter morning is sheer nonsense. Even the Apostles didn’t believe
it when the women returned excitedly from the empty tomb and told them they had
seen Jesus. Sadly the passage of time hasn’t made believing the Resurrection
narrative any easier. As a matter of fact, the dawning of the age of cynicism
and the challenges of living in a materialistic society are formidable
obstacles to having any faith in anything other than the here and now.
Let’s face it we all have our doubts! We all have more than a little bit of “Thomas” in us, the Thomas who
would not believe until he put his fingers into the wounds where the nails had
been. Thomas was lucky; he was able to see with his own eyes. But we fall into
that “blessed” category, as in, “Blessed are they who have not seen and have
believed”.
Many or our contemporaries
have abandoned their faith completely. Others are “casual worshipers” whose
faith is a matter of convenience. According to the Pew Research Center, twenty
percent of Americans and a third of people under the age of thirty are
religiously “unaffiliated”. Officially dubbed “Nones” as to their religious
preference. We seem to have lost that excitement, the awesome bewilderment of
what lies in store for those who believe in Jesus who, by his own experience of
resurrection, tells us that one-day we too will rise from the dead. It really
does seem too good to be true!
Our journey of faith is a
gradual one. We grow a little at a time; we mature in our faith slowly. A
prayerful spirit, a generous heart, charitable words and deeds deepen our faith
and peal away our skepticism and disbelief so that Jesus becomes real to us and
invites us into a personal relationship with him. When Jesus is a part of our
lives, when we know that he lives, we experience today’s remarkable story with
excitement and joy knowing with absolute certainty that Jesus is not to be
found among the dead. And, although it sounds like nonsense, for those who
believe, death will not get the last word. For we were all created to live in
the kingdom where Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, reigns forever.
Happy Easter!
Deacon Tom
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