In Awe Of Easter Grace Series

On the statement is simultaneously an announcement about what she saw and a statement of belief in her promise of a future life with Jesus and God.

I, too AWE OF GRACE

Colossians 3:1-4

3:1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,

3:3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

3:4 When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, you will also be revealed with him in glory.

Every day is a holy day if you live into the truth of the ever-present God.

Colossians 3:1-2 The Message (He Is Your Life)

3 1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is happening around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Easter Prayer Lets Pray,

In Awe, We shout for joy, surprise, and new life!

The stone, the builders, rejected

Has become the cornerstone.

God has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

God has done it this very day;

Let us rejoice in Grace and be glad! Amen

Sermon: Every moment is a moment rich with possibility and hope; every relationship is a potential insight into the activity of the Holy Spirit and God’s Grace; every conversation is a moment to announce God's Good News.

Yet some times and seasons seem even more holy. Some moments reverberate with the living presence of the living God, and our only proper response is to fall to our knees in awe of grace. We are this Easter Sunday in Awe of Grace.

Awe a very small word, but it’s a powerful term that I don’t really recall using the word much. But it’s what this Easter Season is really about seeing the Awe of Resurrection and Announcing Risen living Jesus the Christ.

The Dictionary defines Awe as an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like and we know Grace is God's favor toward the unworthy.

If Holy Saturday is a day of quiet contemplation, a hush in our busy lives.

Then Easter is a shout of jubilation that shakes the foundation of our presuppositions about what makes a good life.

Then Easter is about the Awe of Jesus, about the Awe of Christ, about the Awe of Grace.

All Last week, All Holy Week, all we could think of was death. His death, and ours. He carried us with him when he went. When he breathed his last, he took the air out of our lungs. And now we lie, gasping for life, like the fish we caught that day when he found us and sent us out into the deep water.

But on Easter Moring when the disciples See Jesus, they realize that it is time to stop looking down at the grown and look up at Jesus.

You know, my favorite part of the easter story is the first appearance of the resurrected Jesus is to Mary Magdalene.

Mary assumes that Jesus is the gardener because this occurs in a garden. It is not until Jesus calls Mary by name that her recognition comes.

Jesus calls Mary by name, and that is the moment of recognition.

Mary is the first person to whom Jesus appears, and she is the first person to realize that it is him, the good shepherd, her teacher.

Mary’s announcement to the disciples is significant for this Gospel and preaching.

She does not offer the disciples a third-person, impersonal, doctrinal statement about Jesus’ resurrection, much like our liturgical responses at Easter, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

Rather for Mary, it is a first-person sermon, a testimony, a witness to what she has experienced.

She gives voice again to that which is so critical for this Gospel, one’s own experience and encounter with Jesus so as to recognize who Jesus is.

Mary’s proclamation is not only an announcement of her encounter with the resurrected Jesus but also an interpretation of it.

She Makes a Sermonic Announcement of Life Beyond Death.

She realizes that for Jesus to be raised from the dead is also an assertion about her resurrection, her own future.

The first pers want to make this announcement.

Today We all Need to make this announcement.

This morning, before daybreak, God raised from the dead Jesus of Nazareth. That’s my whole sermon, to make the announcement.

I know it’s difficult to hear. Announcements are always difficult to hear. Nobody pays attention to announcements. The announcements about the church come midweek when you get a phone call, they are printed on the back of the worship bulletin on Sunday, and they are read to you as though you couldn’t read by the worship leader or minister. And then included in the benediction, and still, half the church doesn’t hear the message.