by jphilo | Mar 31, 2014 | Church Newsletter Columns
“Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.
Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,
saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men,
and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”
And they remembered His words…
Luke 24:6–8
Cold. The Winter of 2014 was cold. So long it seemed unending. Hard on people cooped up at home, curtains drawn to block the cold, and in the process blocking out the light as well. In many ways, the winter just passed resembled a cold, dark tomb. Dead and lifeless. Devoid of light.
Even so, I had hope that it would end.
How long? I wondered with eyes searching the landscape for signs of spring. How long will this go on? How much longer will we wait for warmer days filled with light?
As winter’s icy fingers stretched far beyond Ash Wednesday and deep into Lent, my thoughts turned toward the men and women who ministered to Jesus’ body, buried Him, and watched the authorities seal the tomb. Though Jesus had prophesied His death and resurrection, His followers didn’t understand. Therefore, they weren’t waiting for Him to rise from the dead. They were mourning a loss they thought was permanent.
They were without hope.
They didn’t ask, How long until He comes back to life? They asked, How will we live the rest of our days without Him?
Those questions consumed the thoughts of the women who visited the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week. No wonder they were terrified when they saw the stone rolled away. No wonder they bowed low before the two men in dazzling white who asked, Why do you seek the living One among the dead? No wonder they were speechless as they comprehended His prophetic words: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
No wonder they began to hope again.
They didn’t say, How can this be? for the Word of Christ, the Word who is Christ resonated in their hearts.
The light of truth flooded the empty tomb. The winter in their souls relinquished its icy hold. New life stirred their hearts and still stirs the hearts of all Christ’s followers: He is who He says He is. He is who our hearts know He is. He is the God who has power over life and death!
Their hope, and ours, is everlasting and eternal.
So this Easter season of new life and light and springtime, we join the saints from throughout the ages and proclaim the joyful truth: Our God lives! Christ is risen! Alleluia!
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by jphilo | Aug 3, 2012 | Church Newsletter Columns
O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly;
My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1
The drought of 2012 is a doozy, no doubt about it. The hot, dry weather has our family reminiscing about other droughts we’ve endured. Mom remembers how hot their old farmhouse near Pipestone, Minnesota was during the summer of 1936. “The upstairs was so hot,” she says, “we dragged our blankets and pillows outside to sleep in the yard.” Then she adds, “The next drought came in 1956. The summer I was pregnant with you.” She nods in my direction. “I was miserable until you put in an appearance in July.”
I pretty much know how miserable Mom was because our daughter Anne was also born in late July during the drought of 1988. Anne, of course, doesn’t remember that toasty, dry summer but our son Allen, who was six that year, does. “The grass was brown and crispy,” he says, “and the yellow jackets built hives in the cracks in the ground.”
And now Allen’s wife knows how miserable Mom and I were during the droughts of ’56 and ’88. Only more so because she’s pregnant during the worst drought since ’36 and isn’t due until September. Please, keep her in your prayers!
Our family tradition of anticipating new life during drought years has warped my perception of them. When reading biblical accounts of droughts, or when listening to current weather reports I see circumstances, both past and present, as pregnant with opportunity. God used ancient droughts to bring his wandering people back to him. Men and women who trusted him in times of need became part of the Christ’s lineage. Over and over, God blessed bone-dry believers with the promise of a future Messiah, and the faithful clung to that hope.
This rain-starved summer, as every other drought year in my lifetime and yours, is an opportunity for us to cling to faith as our spiritual forefathers did. We can pray for people to turn to God as their illusion of human control evaporates in a cloudless sky. We can trust God to prove himself faithful in the midst of spiritual and physical want. We can share Christ’s living water with lost and parched wanderers and expect God to bring forth new life in many.
When we trust God in lean times, we are like the psalmist David, who sought God earnestly in the desert. Like David, we look beyond the burned fields and wilting trees and see God in his sanctuary, watering our souls with his completed promises and grace. We learn to be satisfied in him as we’ve never been satisfied before. When we gaze upon the God who waters our lives through the saving grace of a baby in a manger, our Father assures us that his fountain of life never runs dry.
