Sermon for July 6, 2014 - "Consequences"

Text: Romans 7:15-25a

INI

I won’t go into details about what I did that prompted my father to say this to me, but this is what he said. “Life is about making choices and you have to live with consequences.”

We all live with unintended outcomes. We take action but it doesn’t come out as planned, or there is some consequence you had not foreseen.

Try as we might, we do not get the things we hope to get by our actions.

Even when we try our hardest.

Even when our hearts are in (what we think is) the right place.

This leads to the blame game. You know how that is played. It goes back a long time – all that finger pointing and drama. Think if Adam talking to God, after the Disaster in the Garden.

“The WOMEN – who YOU MADE! – gave it to me.”

We have a problem with our neighbor, and our neighbor has a problem with us.

But what if this was just a symptom of our real problem.

We have a problem with God, and God has a problem with us.

Paul would agree with that. Paul says it like this…

For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but i see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that i am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Paul was Pharisee. They get a bad rap.

Paul was trained to observe and respect to the law. Yet he has to confess – to say the truth.

The law is holy, righteous, good and spiritual.

But Paul knows that he is none of these things. He was unspiritual and a rebellious slave.

The very existence of the law exposes him as a sinner.

What is it about a law that seems to invite us to break it?

Kids who just have to look in the closet when dad said “don’t look.”

 speed limits.

Paul’s diagnosis is not unique. Paul’s dilemma is the dilemma of thoughtful people across cultures and ages.

In other words – don’t need the bible to tells us this.

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It would be bad enough if I was the only one my foolish and sin-touched choices touch. But of course it is not.

The law says buckle you seatbelt. I want to say, “I am free! If I choose to not do this or that it is no one’s business but my own. I won’t hurt anyone but myself.”

But – the police officer and the EMT will have nightmares.

The expense of the medical care.

My neighbor takes the fall out – and often the full impact – of my lawless ways.

So I do the best I can – try my hardest – and still things do not turnout in a way that I can hold up to God and say – “here you go God! Look at this! Everything else I touch is needs your forgiveness. But this one thing I got right all on my own. This does not need to be forgiven!

And that is when the really blame starts.

“Your troubles are with God! And death is the result!”

Because the one thing we can never do is fear, love and trust God above everything else.

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It is Paul’s prognosis that is good news!

“but thanks to be God, through Jesus Christ!”

This is the power of the gospel.

It is news, not advice.

It is not a new code, but a new relationship. Those who trust in Jesus find a new freedom in a new outcome.

We are not under blame from God.

So we can stop blaming ourselves and our neighbor.

When we are accused of breaking the law we can live in the confidence that the only one who is able to pass judgment on our lives has declared us free.

And because we have the only freedom there is – the freedom of child of God in Christ – we are free to build new relationships that put the well-being of the community first.

This is the freedom to be servants of God and servants of my neighbor.

I’ve thought for many years about this reality. What do we do if don’t need to do anything?

Maybe the best is to be helpful. “How can I help your people today?” That means we have to listen, to understand and to act.

Pray that prayer every day. “God, show me how I can help others today.” Then watch what happens.

"Public Speaking" Sermon for Pentecost - June 8

From Pentecost Sunday. Text was mainly from Acts 2

Enjoy...

Steve

+INI+

One of the things to notice about the sudden out-pouring of God's grace on the day of Pentecost is that it was a very public moment. Unlike other times - like Jesus' baptism or his transfiguration – when only a few people were witnesses to the Holy Spirit everyone was included at Pentecost.

The tongues of fire come to rest upon each and every one of the disciples who were gathered together, and a moment later the crowd gathered outside the house comes surging forward because

Each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

And just to make sure that we don’t miss his point, Luke lists all the nations where Jews lived in the Greco-Roman world who were represented there that day.

What happened at Pentecost was no mystical, inner, personal experience of the Spirit. It was an outpouring of God’s energy that touched every life that was present.

Even Peter. You remember Peter. He's the one who, the last time Jesus met with his friends, was saying, "No matter who else heads for the hills when things start to get tough, I'll be right there behind you, Jesus." Yeah, right.

When things got tough for Jesus, Peter was behind Jesus all right – a long way behind him, and running in the other direction. Like everybody else, he ran away into the darkness.

"Weren’t you with that group from Galilee?" somebody asked him outside of Herod’s palace on that awful night and Peter couldn't deny Jesus fast enough. He simply could not find it in himself to admit that he even knew Jesus.

Yet, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was out in front of everybody speaking to a crowd of people! Peter, the one who could never seem to get one foot out of his mouth without exchanging it for another. The one who denied having known Jesus - preaching about Jesus to a crowd in Jerusalem!

Whether or not it was the best sermon he ever preached, it certainly seems to have been one of the most effective. It only lasted about three minutes, according to Luke; but about three thousand people believed. (Some of you may be thinking that shorter sermons might be more effective. We can talk about that!)

The Holy Spirit, in other words, was given to a very ordinary man and it turned him into a public speaker just like that.

And you thought it was all about going to seminary, learning Hebrew and Greek, getting your theology down pat and being trained in “voice technique”!

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Remember what Jesus said when he preached his first sermon back in Nazareth?

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...”

He was quoting Isaiah, of course.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord  has anointed me; has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners...

In Luke and in Luke's book of Acts, people get the Holy Spirit in order to speak up publicly so that everybody can hear and to act in the power of the spirit

You know me. You know that I talk for a living. You know that I've been a preacher for many years.

Did you know that I'm ALWAYS nervous now when I preach? That I NEVER sleep well on Saturday Night? Sometimes my mouth dries up. Fear will do that to you.

Does that surprise you? That after all these years and after all these sermons I’m still afraid to speak to a crowd? But it's really not fear of speaking though that is bad enough.  Speaking to a crowd about God is even worse.

Imagine the nerve! Imagine the arrogance! Speaking for God? You shuld lookl at me and think, "Who do you think you are?" Who do I think I might be?

I sometimes think that's one of the reasons the church gives us preachers robes and stoles to wear, a funny kind of armor, to protect us so to speak. They even give us a pulpit we can duck behind if necessary!

Because the only thing that would make a sane person put himself or herself at such risk is the Spirit of God. That's why I've kept doing it.

And if I can do it, you can do it. That's got to be one of the most important lessons of Pentecost.

If people like me can do it, people like Peter, then people like you can do it too. You don't have to wear robes public speak God’s word, and you certainly don't have to do it from a pulpit.

You might be on the phone to somebody who is down on their luck. What on earth do you say? It's a scary thing, isn't it? But,

The spirit of the Lord... is upon me to bring good news to the oppressed...

Or you find out somebody's marriage has just come to an end. What possible comfort could you offer somebody like that?

The Spirit of the Lord ... is upon me... to bind up the broken-hearted...

Or somebody who thinks she has nobody and nowhere to turn.

The Spirit of the Lord... is upon me ... to proclaim liberty to captives...

That's what Pentecost is about as much as it is about anybody speaking from a pulpit. It's the very public speech ordinary people like you and me who find ourselves giving to others, because even though we didn't know how we were going to do it, the Holy Spirit descends and gives us the power to speak and to act.

It is what the prophet Joel meant when he said that in the old days God's word was given only to prophets – a few charismatic leader types who  managed to speak up for God.

But he said that a day would come when God would speak through the likes of us!

"I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."

Everybody gets to speak up for God and act for God; because church is the place where the power to speak and act is given, not just to a few, but to all.

+AMEN+

"While we are waiting" - Sermon for Easter 7 - June

Forgot to get this posted last week...

Enjoy

+I+N+I+

Last weekend Sylvia and I got to spend time with our younger son Mike & his new wife Ann. They are in there late 20’s and very much children of the internet culture.

When I got home after church I found them hunched together on Ann’s laptop. “Dad is there something different about your internet? This is taking forever!”

I resisted the urge to be Grandpa Grumpy. “When your mother and I were your age we didn’t have wifi. All we had was dial-up and CompuServe!”

We don’t like to wait. We are impatient people in an impatient culture. Even when the quickness of life overwhelms us we get impatient with waiting.

Think of the times when you been with someone – you’re ready to leave and they are not? Do you stand there resisting the urge to tap your toe and mumble – “Time to go! Let’s get a move on!”

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Maybe you have been a little impatient with Easter. Seven weeks! Every Sunday “Christ is risen!”

So it was with the disciples. Luke (the author of Acts) tells us that Jesus gathered his disciples around him for 40 days after his resurrection helping them assimilate to their new reality – creations new reality after Easter.

But the old impatience is there.

“Ok Jesus! Is NOW the time you’re going to restore David’s kingdom?”

That was, of course, the job description of the Messiah. No matter that Jesus had said over and over before his crucifixion that he was not that kind of Messiah.

He was not going to rule with worldly power, rooted in violence. He was going to rule as the one who takes all the violence, sin and death of the world into himself and let it do its worse – and forgive it all.

“It was necessary that the Son of Man suffer for all.” That was the only way the circle of violence and revenge could ever be broken. Forgiveness is the only power that could ever fix a broken creation.

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“Wait here for the power of the Holy Spirit to come!” And he was taken up from their sight into heaven.

So what should we do while we wait?

·      Our Savior’s has been waiting during this Easter season. What has God have in store for us as a congregation?

·      What is God calling us to do in this time and place?

Prayer is one excellent possibility! Doing it together could even be better.

Today and next Sunday we are going to spend some time waiting and praying together – and talking together to try to discern what God is calling us to be and do as a congregation. I know I speak for your call committee when I say we hope that you will all take part.

Because we have the word of Jesus  - “You will be my witnesses – in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth!”

Or we might say, ‘You will be my wittiness to Albany and Avon, to Stearns County and Minnesota, to the ends of the earth.”

Notice – it is not, “How about it? How about being my witnesses?” NO! You will be…”

Because the Holy Spirit will be with you – with us - giving us the power of the risen Messiah

So, we will pray, and will talk together.

“What is this congregation’s mission, its witness to Jesus and the power of his resurrection to be in Albany and Avon and Minnesota and to the ends of the earth?”

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“You will be my witnesses.”

Maybe you don’t think of yourself in that way. But if the Lord Jesus calls us to be witnesses, we’d better not think that it is something optional.

But what do we do? How can we get started?

Whenever God commands something God always supplies the means to do it.

In the Baptismal Covenant we are asked, “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?”

So here is a prayer.

“Lord, show me how you would use me – today and in the future – to witness for you?”

+++

We can do nothing by our own power and we already have everything we need. We have the promised Holy Spirit in our Baptism.

There will be times of waiting in the life of faith…

But these are not times of inactivity…

Let us pray and talk, love and support each other…

Because the wait will not be long!

Soon the Holy Spirit will show her hand of power…

And it will be time to go!

Sermon for May 25 - "A better promise"

Text: Acts 17:22-31

I had this whole section that didn't make it into the final sermon about how every cultural has certain shared assumptions. One of the shared assumptions in classical Greek cultural was that the body and "soul" were fundamentally different, that the body dies and doesn't matter much. The message of resurrection was offensive because it is based on the testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures (our "old" testament) that God created human kind as bodies and souls together. Ressuerction is a very bodliy thing. If Paul was proclaiming something like "our souls go on forever" everyone would have agreed and that would be that. 

For God, bodies matter. 

Enjoy...

Steve

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The problem with modernity

Here is the truth. I was brought up in the faith and formed as a pastor in a world that has gone away. Many of you were brought up in that world, too.

Back then normal people went to church. Everyone went to church.

When you met a new person it was a meaningful question to ask what church they attended.

Now the fastest growing religious identification is “none” which means “don’t put me on your list. None of your categories matter to me.”

Times have changed. That world has gone away or going away fast. The tasks of welcoming new members use to be helping Methodists become a Lutheran. Now it is helping a pagan become a Christian.

People INSIDE the church bubble don’t always see it because most of our world in inside that bubble.

The point - We live in an age of mission much more like that of Paul then that of 50 years ago.

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Paul visits Athens, the seat of classical culture and learning. The biggest questions ever asked where being asked at the place and time. What is the nature of reality? What is the purpose of life? What are the gods?

Paul is teaching among the Jews – inside the bubble of his cultural and shared common values. But word of a new teacher gets around and Paul is asked to explain. In Agora – in the market place - Paul explained the gospel in one the most perfectly crafted classical speech in all of scripture.

Paul begins by complimenting them. “Athenians” he began, “I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” The Athenians were very religious, searching for something deeper or more meaningful then their lives. And the result of that search is the legacy of classical Greek philosophy and science.

Paul doesn’t start with the Hebrew Scripture, because his hearers don’t know them. They are Greeks, not Hebrews. Paul starts with things he has in common with them. He reminds them of the order and beauty of the universe, the round of seasons in the course of the year, telling them that nature is surely a testimony to a greater, higher power, that “in him we live and more and have our being.”

Then Paul comes to his point and his point is simple. The core message of the Gospel is very simple.

“The one whom you seek for – even grope in the dark for – has been found. The search is over. His name is Jesus. He has been raised from the dead. One day he shall one judge the world.”

Note what happens next

His cultured, sophisticated Greek audience is with Paul as he speaks of the beauty and order of nature, the turn of the seasons.

But when he speaks of Jesus, a crucified Jew, risen from the dead, who will come to judge the world, they thrown up their hands, laugh and mock, and Paul’s great speech comes an abrupt end.

But don’t be too hard on the Athenians. After all, Paul spoke of something they cannot comprehend.

They probably liked to think of themselves as intellectual, open-minded people. But they are not. Like people of all times and place, they think on the basis of previous experience, on the basis of what they already know, judging on the basis of what is known and accepted.

And that works well for most things. These Greeks know about the passage of the seasons, the beauty of a snowflake, but what do they know of resurrection? That is the sort of knowledge does not come from experience. It only comes as a gift.

In our age of mission we like to think of ourselves as completely able to think about anything, to get our heads around everything.

The truth is that we live in a world that is limited to what we know, what we have experienced.

In our world what lives dies. What can we know about the resurrection?

Christians are people who live in a wider reality beyond our senses and our thinking and our flat day-to-day, this equals that and can mean nothing else ways of thinking. What we have to say to the world goes way beyond common sense and worldly wisdom.

We proclaim Jesus, the crucified Jew, risen from the dead. Jesus, who will some day judge the world.

No wonder the world scoffs. The thought that life is stronger than death, that we shall be held accountable to a standard of judgment beyond our own standards is our message.

No wonder the world mocks, shakes its head, and walks away.

Yet some believe. Not a majority, not nine out of ten perhaps, but some. And Acts 17 says that it has always been so.

A better promise

There are times in human history when the common shared answers and assumptions that have held societies together for a very long time begin to break down. These are times of great turmoil, seeking and questioning. Jesus, Paul and the NT Church lived in such a time. We live in such a time.

In such a time multiple new questions arise and with them new answers emerges, each offering the promise to a deeper, richer, more meaningful life.

What Paul said on that day in Athens 2000 years ago is the same messages we have to say in are day.

In Jesus there is the Better Promise – the best promise of all.

Not some spiritualized life after death. Not some spiritual system or self-help manual. No.

We proclaim Jesus, the crucified Jew, risen from the dead. Jesus, who will some day judge the world.

+AMEN+

Life is about making choices - with blog link of the day

From Seth Goodin, on of my daily reads.



Your Choice

Your choice

Habits are a choice

Giving is a choice

Reactions are a choice

Ideas are a choice

Connections are a choice

Reputation is a choice

The work is a choice

Words are a choice

Leading is a choice

No one can be responsible for where or how we each begin. No one has the freedom to do anything or everything, and all choices bring consequences. What we choose to do next, though, how to spend our resources or attention or effort, this is what defines us.

God Spotting - Sermon for Easter 5 - May 18

I've fallen behind on posting but a few folks have asked about sermon posts so I'll try to get back in the habit.

If you are reading but not registered please let me know.

Here is the sermon for last Sunday,

+I+N+I+

God Spotting

In confirmation we’ve been talking about two key questions. “Where do you see activity of God at work in the world” and “What is God calling you to do in the world.” We’ve short-handed this as “God Spotting.”

Through the lens of the Small Catechism and scripture we’ve been sharping our God spotting skills. You’ll see some of their artistic responses to those questions in narthex and back of the sanctuary.

Lets make that our theme today. Where do you see God’s Activity in the world, and lets us the Stephen as out lens.

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Stephen enters the scene as the church grows from the few who followed Jesus to the thousands being baptized after Peter’s sermon on Pentecost.  The church rapidly gets organized.

It all started with expanding ministries. This has always been how church grows - expanding the ministries.  The growing Jerusalem church has a ministry of feeding widows.  Without SSI or family for support, widows became vulnerable to starving.  The church decided to feed them.

But feeding the hungry requires organization, so the disciples call together a congregational meeting and suggest a mission division.  The Apostles will focus on preaching and teaching and a newly created body called “Deacons” will see to the feeding of the widows. 

Stephen was one of these Deacons. And this ministry was blessed.

“Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” 

Some folks from the synagogue must have gotten jealous of such good work because the Bible says that they “stood up and argued with Stephen.” Of course, when a person is hard at working feeding the hungry in the name of Jesus Christ, you don’t want to argue with them.  They have the power of God with them.

“They could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.”

God Spot 1- Yesterday some of us from OSLC were in St Cloud. We helped food for the hungry in our community. Over 150,000 meals where packed. If people wanted to engage us in religious debate we’d probably told them, “Go away! We’re busy feeding people.”

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These folks who argued with Stephen must have been poor losers, because they set him up on charges of blasphemy, which carried the death penalty. In the Sandhedrin, the religious court for a religious crime, Stephen gives his defense speech. 

This is a God Spot. Stephen pointed them, not to himself, but to Jesus. When Followers of Jesus are about his business – like feeding the hungry – some people will ask questions. When they are pointed – not toward self, but toward Jesus – you’ve spotted God at work, making the kingdom come.

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On Pentecost when Peter preached his sermon, people were struck in their hearts and asked, “What can we do?”  Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized.” 

Stephen gives about the same sermon, but this time folks are not struck in their heart. They become so enraged that they grind their teeth. They cover their ears so they cannot listen to any more of Stephen’s sermon. Then, they rush and grab Stephen, dragging him out of the city.  There, they stone him to death.

This is a God Spot – Opposition. Luther said that this is a very good sign that God is at work – because this world will oppose God’s activity.

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Did Stephen resist or struggle? We don’t know. All we know is this.

Stephen said in invocation, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and said aloud, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And with these words he fell asleep.

Who also said these words just before he died? It was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

On the cross, Jesus had the legitimate option of exacting vengeance for his wrongful crucifixion. “Vengeance is mine says the Lord God” and Jesus had the option of executing that vengeance upon those who set him up for crucifixion.  The words from the cross could easily have been, "Father, kill them." 

What Jesus said was, “Father, forgive them!  Do not hold this sin against them.  Grant them acquittal!”

Stephen heard these words well and lived by them. 

Stephen becomes the first martyr of the Christian church.  He was not the last. 

He is not called a martyr because he died confessing Jesus Christ.  He is a martyr because he died speaking Jesus' word of forgiveness.

You don't have to die to be a martyr. When you grant acquittal to those who sin against you, it feels like a part of you does die.  Yet, in that death the resurrection to life is given as a gift.  That is God's power in you, working the same work in you as in Jesus.

I chose to use the word 'acquittal' here because the word 'forgiveness' comes too easy to our lips, failing to come from deep in our spirit.  Acquittal is a grace that includes forgiveness, yet it goes far beyond it. It is the ability to nobly wipe clean any blame for an offense.  It is granting exoneration even before there is a need to forgive and forget.  Acquittal means “Case dismissed!” even before a case has been built.

Acquittal is the surest sign of God

Miracles of healing, feeding and even raising the dead can make a difference in the world. But when we are willing to lay down our right to revenge the world is made new.

We can look all over the world and see that.

·      In and around Jerusalem today the children of the two sons of Abraham are getting ready to go to war again over who owns which olive tree.

·      And in Syria, South Sudan and Little Falls retributions are being worked out.

·      In each of our schools, streets, and workplaces – every day we have people holding on to wrongs done to them.

In each of these places God can be spotted – working through the Followers of Jesus – laying down their right to revenge, acquitting the sins, trust that the God’s grace is enough to trump all violence.

+AMEN+

Easter Sunday Sermon

I little late with this.

Blessed Easter!

+INI+

Alleluia! Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

This morning we proclaim the end of one story and the beginning of another. Christ is risen, come back to us – but that is the end of one story and the beginning of another.

Think of Mary Magdalene, there in the garden. Think of her progress through the three stages of Resurrection.

First – she is blinded by grief

Three days ago her beloved friend and teacher was torn from her life by mob violence and corrupt authority. She stood on Calvary and watched him die a hideous and shameful death. She had loved him in great measure because of the way he’d loved her.

And that morning – as she walked through the awakening city. Everything seemed as if nothing had happened. Why did the world insist on going around? The finality of the thud of the rock rolling in place to close the tomb was still echoing in her mind as she came to the garden that morning.

Because if there is anything you can count on is that the dead stay dead.

Mary is blinded by her grief

·      Even after she finds the tomb empty and even as she confesses her confusion to the angels, her grief blinds her.

·      Even as Jesus appears, her grief blinds her, and she can’t recognize him.

·      It is only when Jesus calls her by name that she understands that he’s done what he promised.

Stage 2: Hope fanned to flame.

We are told that Jesus had driven 7 demons from Mary. That is a lot of demons! This is a woman with a story!

But in Jesus she had found hope. Hope that her life could be different, hope that in this community of Jesus’ Followers she was not an outcast.

When she came to the garden that morning that fiery hope was a small dying ember, but at the sound of her name, what had been smoldering burst back into flame.

What joy in that moment! Life seemed to have suddenly returned to normal in that moment.

But it had not; for the next thing Jesus says to her tells her that something new was happen.

“Do not hold on to me,” he says. “I cannot stay here with you, but I will still be with you.”

There is a new future in store! And Mary is the start of it.

Mary’s risen lord says to her, “Go and tell the others.”

And this is the 3^rd Stage of Resurrection – “Go and tell others.”

Mary is the first apostle, the apostles to the Apostles – the first in a long line of relay runners with the news that death itself has died.

She takes the news back to the Jesus’s followers, blinded by grief, hiding in fear

She tells them the News – the Good News! And lives began to change.

This is the Third Stage of resurrection – to go out and tell all around us of life that not even death can defeat us.

Paul says something along these lines:

“So since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

What Paul is saying is this. Resurrection – Jesus, yours and mine  – is not something that happened once years ago as a one-off exception. And it is not something that will happen only on some future day.

No –resurrection life is ours - today.

It is revealed in this – we trust the promise that our ultimate destiny is eternal life in Christ.

In faith our sinful nature is replaced with Jesus’ nature as the beloved Son of God.

Here is what this means.

These “stages” are not a straight path. We go ‘round and ‘round touching these bases.

Because there is plenty of death in the world, plenty that grieves us and would break our hearts and destroy our hope.

And yet...

If you can’t see the power of the resurrection alive in the world today, don’t believe it! And if you look with the eyes of faith you will see it.

·      The husband who comes to himself and returns home to the wife he has wronged – and is forgiven.

·      The addict to drug or drink or violence who – with the help of many friends – takes the first step away from death, who turns around to life. 

·      The person who decides to forgive some wrong, instead of clinging to their right of retribution.

·      The community grief stricken in the aftermath of violence that commits to making a better future for its children.

·      And much more.

  Easter is the day to wake up from grief and loss.

            Wake up to God’s future!

Today is the day to be defined by our future, not by our past, but by God’s preferred and promised future.

That is the reality of our post Easter “Already and not yet” world. Resurrection goes on all around us. Can we be free from our grief to see it?

Like Mary we sent out to tell the world that death does not get the last word over us.

For new life abound! And Jesus has the future under control.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!