Dear
Church Family
Now we are in the Easter season, the period
of 40 days when Jesus appeared to his disciples to convince them, and prove to
them, that he is Risen Indeed. It may still seem incredible for us. As we move
beyond Easter, knowing that God can do incredible things, but we still find
ourselves in the pandemic, separation and quarantine all around us. How does
Easter address this, you may be asking.
It’s been a topic in my house these last few
days. St. Paul addressed it in his letter to the Romans to introduce himself
and to reassure the disciples there, they could get through whatever they were
facing. Where in your life do you need to turn to Jesus today?
Romans 5:3-5 Common English Bible (CEB)
3 But not only that! We even
take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces
character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to
shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the
Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Easter is telling us we can grow in this
tough time because of the steps the trouble gives us. First, trouble produces endurance. We are
facing each day the challenges of physical distancing, or losing work time and
money, or being separated from our support groups. But we are getting through
them one day at a time. Thus producing endurance. We will be able to look back
on this and say, if we could handle that…. We can handle almost anything.
Second, endurance produces character. We are
developing parts of us in this endurance that will make us special in some way.
Just look at the creativity being produced all around us by our children, by
those who are contained at home. We are seeing incredible examples on the
internet, through Facebook and YouTube, that just boggles the mind. I am in awe
of some of the parodies I’ve seen by creative people. Just the other day there
was a boy playing guitar who was dealing with at home schooling and using the Halleluiah
song to tell his story. Today I saw a parody on Mask Maker, Mask Maker, make me
a mask, from Fiddler on the Roof. Such talent. Endurance produces character.
Maybe there is something growing inside of you that will make a difference for
us or for you in this time of character building.
Third, character produces hope. These gifts
that are coming forth out of boredom, or creativity or necessity, are going to
produce hope. We can improve, we can endure, we can find new ingredients in our
character. We can see good things coming out of this, and a whole slew of
heroes, who are putting everything they have into helping others. There are
many reasons for hope.
Finally, this hope reminds us of God’s love
for us that has been poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus in the Upper
Room, on the night before he died, promised the help of the Holy Spirit. We
will come to appreciate this greatly as we go through the trouble.
God’s peace be upon you all.
Pastor Jeff
April 14, 2020
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