Hi Folks!

We are in the midst of what is known on the Christian calendar as "Holy Week." We'll reflect at Maundy Thursday service tonight, we'll mourn the cross tomorrow and we'll celebrate the resurrection on Sunday (3 services, 7:30 am, 8:50 am and 11:00 am). But I pray we do one other thing.

During Easter we go through the season with a "knowing" heart thinking we have got it down. We've been through many Easter services, eaten many Easter meals, had fellowship with our family and sang the Easter hymns. We might even say we "know the drill." But that one other thing I want you to remember isn't about the usual Easter mindset. Let's visit back to a package that was sent to us at Christmas. It came in the form of a little child. It was said to be a great gift. Weren't you a little curious about the package? Didn't you think about opening it then?

Curiosity and packages takes me to an episode of the old "Dick Van Dyke Show." In that episode Rob told Laura that curiosity would be her undoing. Laura said she wasn't so curious and that Rob was mistaken. A package came. Laura walked around it. She tried to ignore it. She tried to put it out of her sight. But it was compelling. "What is in that package?" As the story progressed she picked away at the package until she got a sudden and unwelcome surprise. The package opened on it's own and it got bigger and bigger. It filled up her den. It was a self-inflating life raft. She tried to hide it so that when Rob came home he wouldn't know. But it couldn't be hidden.

I sometimes wish we were that curious about the package we got from God. That little boy that came at Christmas is a gift that grew to fill up the whole world with His love. It got so big that the world could not hold it. And it's message is the message of Easter, that God gave His only Son so that we could have eternal life with Him. The package came at Christmas, but the surprise came to all of us at Easter.

So reflect on His story of redemption. Pick away at the package until it opens and fills your heart. It's OK, for that box, just like the tomb, will be empty. And God's love will be loosed throughout the world through the work of His Church. If we do our part, the surprise cannot be hidden. For we are the witnesses of the empty cross and the open/empty tomb.

Let Good News be a Church that "loves to tell the story, of Jesus and His love!" Let Good News be a Church that "loves to tell the story, of Jesus and His love!" In our next sermon series, we’ll tell that story. The series “Kingdom Tales” will focus on Old Testament and New Testament parables (stories with a point). I hope we all have fun with these wonderful stories of the faith!

In Christ's Love, Randy