Easter

Our pastor has been preaching on the Resurrection for the past month, and his sermons have been some of his best ever (they can be downloaded on our church's website - Trinity Presbyterian in Norfolk, VA). Below are some of the few excerpts that have stayed with me over the past few weeks....

Jesus didn't just beat death, He transformed death. He turned death into a gateway to the m ost beautiful place in the world. The decay of death for the Christian is gone. Death is powerless over us - it simply ushers us into something far more glorious, far more normal.

"For in the cross of Christ, as in splendid theater, the incomparable goodness of God is set before the whole world. The glory of God shines, indeed, in all creatures on high and below, but never more brightly than in the cross." (John Calvin)

This was the meditation in our bulletin on Easter morning -

"I love the idea of the Sacrifical Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Looks, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled...it's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven...I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins on the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity." (Bono)