Wednesday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

The Easter sermon will attempt to look at the Easter story from the perspective of how it plays itself out in our world and our day and time.

I want us to look at some of the phrases that have become part of Easter and I want to pursue the meaning of those phrases.

For me Easter is not about what happened but what it means that it happened. I am more interested in how a resurrection event transposes into our lives and how it communicates to us. In Marcus Borg and John Crossan's book The Last Week we find a new way to hear the words, "Jesus is Lord". Out of context that implies for us what we have always believed about it; the suggestion that the "living Christ" is with us in some mystical way. It takes the idea of the "living presence of Christ" into our lives very personally and dramatically and there are many who understand their Christian faith in that way.

Borg and Crossan point us to the time in which that phrase was first spoken and the juxtaposition between the understanding the "Caesar is Lord" because he represented the power of government and a "self-anointed" power of God. If the Christians were proclaiming "Jesus is Lord" they were also saying, "Caesar isn't Lord". That was an important way to put their values into perspective. It is not unlike the German pastors in the Confessing Church (Bonhoeffer and Niemoller) who refused to give allegiance to Hitler. As we know they paid a dear price for their lack of support.

More than that, the idea that "Jesus is Lord" framed the idea that those values that Jesus lived and died for are the true values that will prevail.

Easter is about the reconciliation between the Christian Gospel and the cultural values. It is an affirmation that ultimately "Jesus is Lord".

In the sermon I intend to take that phrase and try to indicate what that means. How do you see it? Do you have thoughts about what it would be like if Christian values prevailed in this world filled with misguided thoughts and self-seeking attitudes?

If you have some thoughts about this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of the blog click on the 'comments' box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster