Here is this month's message from Pastor Chris Wicher, President of the Eastern District, Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.
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We pray that you have been encouraged and uplifted by this message of hope.
Christ is risen, alleluia!
God is in the rock moving business. We see it at the resurrection of Christ. The stone was intended to keep Jesus in the tomb, away from His followers, away from this life. It was sealed with the governor's imprimatur. All told Jesus' death was real and it was official.
However, when the women came to the tomb they saw the stone had been rolled away. Jesus was alive. The disciples looked in and saw that Jesus was not there. The rock was rolled away not to let Jesus out but to let the disciples in and see for themselves that He was not there. Death could not keep Jesus away from them. Life cannot get in the way. St. Paul wrote in Romans 8, "nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love", which proved true in his life experience changing him from a Jesus-hater to a Jesus-proclaimer.
From the rock's perspective I always find Easter astonishing. A rock - no matter what the rock might be for you - cannot keep life from happening in God's view. A rock cannot keep God from acting, even if our rock be fears, or doubts, or failings, or shortcomings. Guilt, shame, sin are even rolled away by faith. New life and new hope break through. Death is conquered. The grave is vanquished. You can't keep God's truth from breaking through. You can't keep life from overpowering our emptiness. Jesus is our way, truth and life.
Her name was CP. She was the granddaughter of my members. She wasn't a churchgoer. We met when I brought communion to the home of her grandparents. When her grandmother died, I remember standing with her looking into the grave. She asked "how can we know for sure? How can we know there is life after death and there is a heaven?" I told her that "our Lord was raised from the dead and that is the promise to all who believe. Your grandmother believed it. Your grandfather believed it. Now they are with Him forever. It's true. We just believe it."
I didn't see CP for a few months after the funeral, but by God's grace she did start coming to church. In fact she joined, had her children baptized, even her husband, in time, became one of the trustees of the congregation. It was an amazing example in my life of God working in His time and His way in the heart and life of a grieving woman. God rolled a stone away for her. God breaks through.
Do we live it? Do we pray and pray again and then stop looking for our prayers to be answered? Do we act in anticipation of God's power or are we chilling in fear of life's shadows? Have we dismissed new opportunities and said "we've tried that before"? Are we afraid of the neighbors around our church, what they might do if they come to our church, what they might think of us, what they might bring?
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