Category Archives: Faith and Practice

Practicing the Resurrection

Posted on by
2

I had a friend on Facebook last week post that for pastors, the week after Easter is equal to Christmas vacation.  I don’t know what planet he’s writing from, but I’ve never known that to be the case.  This week following Easter I have two funerals, a youth retreat to prepare for, as well as the usual visitation, sermon and worship prep that comes with a standard work-week as a Pastor.  “Christmas-vacation” – as if!

I think that having funerals the week after Easter Sunday, or any time of the year for that matter, is kind of like putting your faith to the test.  “Do you really believe all that stuff you said last week?”  If Christ is raised, if we believe in a living savior who has conquered death and sin, how does that change the way you mourn the loss of a loved one?  How does that change your view of death, but also your view of the life you now live?

This week I have the opportunity to celebrate the victory of these two saints who have now joined the Church triumphant.  I celebrate their lives, I mourn their passing, and I anticipate with great hope and longing the day when we shall be brought together, those who sleep and those who live, as we meet the Lord in the air.

I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory
And I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea
About the angels singing and the old redemption story
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of victory.

O victory in Jesus my Savior forever
He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood
He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

SDG

Earth Day and Good Friday

Posted on by
Reply

I’m not one to really get into all the hubub about “Earth Day.”  I try to be a good steward of God’s creation, I learned that in scouting.  My family recycles, we try not to waste too much water (but with a pre-teen girl, that’s near impossible), and both our cars average about 25 miles per gallon, even though they are 10 years old.

I just can’t throw myself into the “Earth Day” excitement.  As my heart is an “idol factory,” always taking the good gifts of God and making them gods themselves, I have seen how “Earth Day” and “Environmentalism” are no different.  We worship “Mother Earth,” but it’s always the “hand of God” that brings disaster, as if “Gaia” and “God” were two equal gods, opposing one another, one loving, one not.  “The Lord our God is one, and we shall have no other gods before Him” (Deut 6:4).  “There is no one holy like the Lord, Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, Nor is there any rock like our God” (1 Sam 2:2).  “Earth Day” service project, while good and beneficial, become a religious service, “do this and you will recieve absolution for your environmental sins.”  Yeah, so I’m a little skeptical of “Earth Day.”

But this week I read an article by Janie Cheaney of World Magazine that, while not changing my attitude about “Earth Day,” did help me to see Earth’s role in our salvation story anew.  I encourage you to click here to read it.  As Ms. Cheaney noted in her email to me about this article, “I can’t help thinking, especially in reference to Rom. 8:19, that Earth would somehow recognize her King.”

“This Earth Day, thousands of Earth’s devotees will be handing out recycling containers, picking up trash, and urging us to remember our mother. If she had a soul, she might be smiling indulgently at pleas to “make a difference,” even while pointing upward with every fresh-planted seeding. Only one Person really has made a difference.”