Living Easter Out Loud

May Newsletter Article:

     Universal Studios’ 1989 movie Field of Dreams is known by the hopeful statement, “If you build it, they will come.”  When thinking about growth – whether physical or spiritual – it’s tempting to say just this.  While it may work for baseball fields in movies, it certainly doesn’t work for churches or spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.  Rather, we in the church might better say, “If we be it, people will see.”  That is to say, if we’re really being faithful, really being the Body of Christ for the world, redeemed by his blood, then our lives will scream Jesus and people will see and take notice.  They’ll see: see Jesus, see the truth of the gospel, see the glory and power of God.

    This is precisely the theme of the season of Easter.  We live bearing witness to the reality of the resurrection and all it means for the world: so, if Jesus’ resurrection is really true, if the world is actually changed, if sin and death are truly defeated, then the world will see it in our lives.  For Easter’s fifty days we’re called especially to focus on how Jesus’ death and resurrection initiate a new reality.  And then, we’re called to live into this new reality, to display it, to live Easter out loud.

     We can live quiet discipleship for a long time, but eventually faithfulness requires that we live out loud, reckless discipleship.  Consider Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea as examples (Jn 19).  They had both been secret, quiet followers of Jesus – that is, until Christ’s crucifixion.  Then, they cranked up the volume of their faithful witness: they boldly requested permission from Pilate to bury Jesus’ body, marking themselves as followers of a convicted rebel and making themselves ritually unclean according to Jewish custom.  They were quiet no longer; they began to live Easter out loud. 

         Easter is a time of tremendous joy, joy that permeates our entire world, because we know that in Christ, God has made a way for all of creation to be redeemed, to be brought back into the everlasting joy of the presence of God.  Let us go forth as those who live out loud, who live recklessly, the joy of Easter.  

Think about this:
If we really have been given

the gift of life

that will never end,
and if we have been filled

with living hope,

we're gonna overflow.
And if God's love is burning in our hearts, we're gonna glow.
There's just no way to keep it in.

 

Wake the neighbors!
Get the word out!
Come on, crank up the music,

climb a mountain and shout.
This is life we've been given,

made to be lived out.
So, la, la, la, la, live out loud!

 

Every corner of creation

is a living declaration.
Come join the song

we were made to sing.

 

“Live Out Loud”

by Steven Curtis Chapman, Declaration (2001)

Special Thanks:

Thank you to all those who helped make our season of Lent and its worship services such a holy experience:

-       Jean Chesnut, Carolyn Jansen, and the worship committee;

-       Linda White, Jodi Geier, and Linda Green;

-       All who helped in making, serving, and cleaning after meals;

-       Priscilla, Sharon and Bruce, and Sharon and Floyd for watching Noah;

-       The GI Ministerial Association for leading Holy Week services;

-        Pastor Jay Vetter and Trinity UMC for hosting Holy Week services;

-       Pastor Bev Lanzendorf of First UMC and her musicians whose presence and song enriched our Good Friday worship;

-       The Beckmans and all our handy, fix-it types;

-       The sewing women who made covers for the dividers in Fellowship Hall, as well as the beautiful banners for Lent and Easter;

-       The Albers for the comfortable seating area in Fellowship Hall;

-       All those who ordered flowers for decoration;

-       The Sheens and the Brothers Coates for hosting/leading our Lenten studies;

-       The youth who operated the projection for Wednesday nights;

-       And all who worshipped and prayed with us through Lent.