VALLEY VINE Valley Presbyterian Church
April 2016
Volume 61, Number 3
Dear friends, The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead dwarfs the significance of other events. You and I may follow the stock exchange, and the world economy may shift as it moves, but a billion people on Easter don’t gather every year to shout in reference to the NYSE “It is risen – It is risen indeed!” We celebrate the Resurrection in songs and anthems, in poetry and prose. But the Resurrection is more than a moment in the Christian year, a great festival. It should shape everything we do and all we are as followers of Jesus. We worship on Sundays because every Christian service is a celebration of the Resurrection. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that the resurrection really happened. But what percentage live differently as a result of that belief? Many people, including many church members, spend more time admiring a dead Jesus than encountering the living one! It is easy to admire the historical Christ as a figure from the past. • The hopeless are moved by his miracles • The lawyers, by his Socratic ways and novel interpretation • The hesitant, by his courage • The radical, by his identification with the poor • Teachers by the genius of his stories • Communitarians by his success in uniting diverse groups and overcoming barriers • The guilty and hurting love his compassion • The successful marvel at his generosity • Leaders are struck by his people skills and entrepreneurial vision, • Humanists rejoice in the way he values every person regardless of background, age, or circumstance,
• Underdogs are wowed by the arc of his life from obscurity to fame • Psychologists revere his capacity to understand the roots of human motivation • Materialists wonder at his simplicity Unfortunately, the dead Jesus has more fans than the Living Christ has followers. It is not enough to admire Jesus, the historical figure, or even to believe in his Resurrection. We are called to love and obey and trust a Lord who is alive and who wants to be immediately and actually present with us, penetrating our souls, activating our thoughts, guiding our decisions. The Resurrection validates all Jesus’ assertions, including his claims to be the unique source of knowledge about God the Father, the final authority over life and death, and the sole purveyor of a new kind of life that overcomes guilt and sin and abolishes death. The Resurrection means that the encounters Jesus had with people in the first century can happen in the 21st century. He can still make our hearts burn within us as we understand the scriptures, as he did for the two disciples on the Emmaus Road. He can comfort us in our distress as he did Mary in the Garden. He can overcome our doubts as he did for Thomas, and free us from our guilt, as he did for Peter. He can call us and send us, just as he did the first disciples. He can grant us his peace even when we are afraid, as he did for his frightened followers locked in the upper room. He can fill us with his spirit just as they were filled. In April and May, we are going to study encounters Jesus had with people in the scriptures. But we must not look at these moments as historical curiosities. Instead, let us see them as paradigms, examples of the encounters he wants to have with us. For Jesus said “In every time and place, for those willing to trust, I am the Resurrection and the Life!”
Blessings,
Valley Presbyterian Church 6947 E. McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253-5342 Phone: 480-991-6424 Fax: 480-991-6427 Email: church@vpc.church Website: vpc.church