Tag: Easter

April 2017

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him. This is my message for you.” Matthew 28:5-7

 

Dear Redeemer Family:

Behold the message of Easter Morning. Indeed, it is the message of all messages. It is what the angels tell the women as the go to the tomb early on that morning.

 

There is no doubt that there was a reason to be afraid. The Roman guards were literally frozen in place, like in a catatonic state. Jesus’ body was gone. And the angel is just sitting there calmly, as if awaiting the women’s arrival. The women were undoubtedly terrified. But those words, “Do not be afraid,” always preface a message of great importance. And this message is the one of greatest importance.

 

The Gospel of Matthew places the death and resurrection of Jesus in the context of the Roman Empire of death resisting God’s empire of life enacted in Jesus. In the resurrection story, Pilate and the religious leaders send guards to make sure the tomb is secure. When the heavenly messenger appears and rolls back the stone to announce the good news, the guards shake with fear and are like dead men. This turnaround shows the ironic character of the good news. The guards are now dead men. Jesus is alive. The empire of death is dead. The empire of God’s life-giving power rules.

 

This is the message of Christianity par excellence. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Not even Death could hold Our Lord. With Christ’s resurrection everything is now changed. He has broken for all the curse under which humanity has lived since the time of Adam. The powers of sin, death and evil; even the power of the God’s Own Law, are now all broken by this upheaving event. By Christ’s rising, the old world is turned upside down. And we are changed.

 

This is now the state in which we live. We are to live for life. We are freed from the power of the Law. We are to resist the forces of evil. We no longer see death as the end, but now a gate through which we will pass to eternal life. Everything has now changed. And the part which we all too often neglect to notice is the depth to which we are changed. We have been raised with Christ. We are no longer sinful and unclean in God’s sight. But, through our baptism and faith in Christ, we have even been made to be children of God, co-heirs with Christ!

 

This is the joyful message of Easter Morning. Proclaim it always in your lives, and shout it from the mountain tops, and the valley depths of your lives.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Pastor Rose

May 2016

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous.” Psalm 97:12

 

Since we are still in the Season of Easter, and we are all called to be witnesses, some of you have told me that you enjoy it when I do this, I share with you some snippets of some of the great witnesses of the past. Enjoy this snippets of people of great faith.

 

May 2nd (for this year, anyway) is Sts. Philip and James, Apostles Day. Philip was one of the first disciples of Jesus, who after following Jesus invited Nathanael to “come and see.” According to tradition, Philip preached in Asia Minor and died as a martyr in Phrygia. James, the son of Alphaeus, is called “the Less” (meaning “short” or “younger”) to distinguish him from another apostle named James who is commemorated on July 25. Philip and James are commemorated together because the remains of these two saints were placed in the Church of the Apostles in Rome on this day in 561.

 

Also May 2nd, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, died in 373 (you know him because of the creed that is named after him which we will be saying later this month). Athanasius attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 as a deacon and secretary to the bishop of Alexandria. At the council, and when he himself served as bishop of Alexandria, he defended the full divinity of Christ against the Arian position. One of the oldest and most enduring heresies: that Jesus was just a man, a good man, and God “adopted” him. This position, Arianism, was held by several emperors, magistrates, and some theologians at the time. Because of his defense of the divinity of Christ, he was considered a troublemaker and was banished from Alexandria on five occasions. Once, he escaped in what you would have to call a boat race up the Nile River. If they caught him, they were going to execute him. Because of this, he actually only served about two years in Alexandria. He had to keep escaping. As bishop, one of his paschal letters to surrounding bishops gives a list for books that should be considered canonical scripture. He lists the twenty-seven New Testament books that are recognized today.

 

May 4th, Monica, mother of Augustine, died 387. Monica was married to a pagan husband who was ill-tempered and unfaithful. She rejoiced greatly when both her husband and his mother became Christian. But it is because she is the mother of Augustine that she is best known. Monica had been a disciple of St. Ambrose, and eventually Augustine came under his influence. Almost everything that we know about Monica comes from Augustine’s Confessions, his autobiography. She died far from her home but said to her son, “Do no fret because I am buried far from our home in Africa. Nothing is far from God, and I have no fear that God will not know where to find me, when Christ comes to raise me to life at the end of the world.” Her dying wish was that her son remember her at the altar of the Lord, wherever he was.

 

In Christ,
Pastor Rose