Letters from the Soul: This Month's Newsletter Column + April Preaching Schedule

(Editorial note: Since this is Holy Week/Holy Moly Week/Holy Cow Week/etc., the next post I likely will have time for will be Friday--I have been invited to deliver the message at our citywide Good Friday service, and I'll be posting that sermon on Friday after the service.  As always, the upcoming sermon schedule is included in italics after my column so that you can follow along if you'd like; the new sermon series looks at how different followers of Jesus reacted to the news of the empty tomb and Resurrection, and how we can relate to their reactions today!  Am really looking forward to it!  Holy week blessings to all of you! -E.A.)

April 2013: 'Our Way”

Dear Church,

I read a rather funny news article last week—apparently, a prosecutor in Ohio has filed charges against Punxsutawney Phil—the national groundhog of Groundhog Day.  You see, Phil predicted an early spring this year.  But as I am sure you can attest to based on the wacky weather we have had in March, spring was not quite so quick in arriving!  This was the case for much of the country—obviously—and so a local prosecutor in Ohio, as a publicity gag, decided to indict Phil on charges of perpetrating a fraud upon the American public.

And sure, it’s good for a laugh or three, but it’s also a bit odd—suing a groundhog because our least favorite season didn’t exit stage right quick enough for our tastes!  If something doesn’t quite go our way, we seek to change it or mess with it any way we can.

There is a (rather derogatory) term for folks like that in the church: “Burger King Christians” (so called because they want “to have it their way”).  It is a charge we are probably pretty susceptible to: we like having things our way, and especially in an arena that means so much to us—like church—that desire is often compounded.

But church is much like the changing of the seasons—we are not meant to have it our way, we are meant to be resilient, to roll with the punches, and to have faith that just as around the corner from winter comes spring, so too around the corner from the Cross comes the Resurrection!

After all, as the old adage goes, good things come to those who wait.  Let us continue forward in our lives together as a church with faith not in our own timetables, but in God’s timetable.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Eric

April 2013 Preaching Schedule:

April 7: “We Are Legion,” Mark 5:1-9

April 14: Rev. John Steppert, guest preaching

New Sermon Series, Easter 2013: “Reactions to the Resurrection: Our Biblical Alter Egos”

April 21: “Am I Mary?” Mark 16:1-8

April 28: “Am I Cleopas?” Luke 24:13-24