Upon Golgotha when the trees hung still
Our heads slumped and swayed
Took three strikes and a jab
Yes, they nailed him down,
pierced and crowned,
this unruly King of the Jews

Orphans of LIght, You gathered tombside
teary eyed, you called, “Have you see the one?
Who warmed our hearts with simple truth and purest love,
Have you seen our Lord?”
Friends, he is not here…

His forgiveness eyes opened,
threw off tombstone shroud,
stood up against sorrow and fear
knocked death off it’s throne and entered the city ahead of you

Hail our Messiah!
The conqueror of death
rises over this third morning
splices sky into light ribbons
beaming over all that is new
He Lives! Yes! He Lives!
And his name is love
and this love endures without end
without end
without end

Dear people, praise your God
For if you followed him here, you will follow him there
Forever renewed in your forever world
May the Lord be before you, within you,
reaching out to the world through you!
Go in celebration!
Go in his peace!
He is Risen!

I attend a Saturday morning men’s small group that meets at 7:30 a.m. at the church. To prep for that time each week, one of the group leaders sends out an email describing the topic from the previous weekend’s message which is the focus of our discussion. I am often amazed at well these short emails articulate the previous weekend’s message and setup our discussion time.

I wanted to share what Darin Charles, one of our group facilitators ,shared this week as he described the journey we have been on during the season of Lent looking at the last 24 Hours of Jesus’ life. I think it’s a great illustration.

Here’s what Darin shared.

One of my kids’ favorite toys is a flashlight.  But in order to play with a flashlight, they must first go through the painstaking process of turning off every single light in the house.  They make sure to get every closet light, the pantry and even the light over the kitchen sink that they can’t reach.  And, only then can they turn on their flashlight and truly appreciate the joy found with such a simple “toy.”

In many ways, this is exactly what we’ve been doing with our discussions through the season of Lent.  We have been making ourselves acutely aware of some of the darker truths of the human condition – apathy, guilt and, this week, fear- so that when we get to Easter Sunday we can fully appreciate the light of Christ’s resurrection.  So don’t get too depressed by our recent focus on the not-so-positive aspects.  As David put it last week “Jesus is the only hero in this story.”  And that portion of the story is coming soon.

As I read that introduction, I couldn’t help but get excited about April 3rd & 4th. I hope you will think about someone in your sphere of relationships who you might invite to church that weekend. It just might change their world forever.

During our service last night and this morning, I will be sharing this Easter Benediction. In years past we have shown this video to end our service. I think these words really capture the Easter story.

Happy Easter everyone!