Pastor's Message
April 2012
Children of God at Emmanuel,
As many of you are now aware, when I came back from Florida, I had prepared a sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent. It was the Fourth Sunday in Lent. I could feel the panic and disgust growing in me as I realized this. The “voice of shame” began to scold me for my stupidity. It was then that I began to read the appropriate texts for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. The text from Ephesians spoke to me. I did what is known as Lectio Divina; allowing God to speak to me through the texts. Part of that text reads:
“...we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
(Ephesians 2:3c-10 TNIV)
During the sermon, I quoted something my father-in-law, a recent survivor of a stroke, said to my wife’s older sister, “One day can change everything.” In a moment, a stroke changed my father-in-law’s life and the lives of all those who love him. We, his immediate family, have all been impacted by his stroke and the dynamics of the family unit are altered. For him and for us, everything changed in a few short hours of that one day.
In the 15th chapter of First Corinthians, Paul writes,
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’”
...and EVERYTHING is changed.
God’s grace through Christ allows us to realize the opportunity to change our lives day in and out. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have already been brought into the change that changes everything. In one moment, the world shook and a grave was opened. This event told death, evil, failure, sin, hopelessness, and the tears of despair that they no longer had a final say over the creation or over us. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! One day can change everything! Thanks be to God!
One of Christ’s servants,
Pastor David A. Hendricks-Child of God