West Main

One of my favorite bands has always been U2. They are one of the most popular rock groups in the world, despite openly singing about faith in Jesus. Their spiritual depth in their music and lyrics has always moved me. This week, as I have reflected on Jesus, the passion week, and Easter, one of their lesser known songs has truly spoken to me. I wanted to share one small section of it that has moved me.

“The rule has been disproved, THE STONE IT HAS BEEN MOVED. The grave is now a groove, all debts are removed .... Oh, can’t you see what love has done? Oh, can’t you see what love has done? Oh, can’t you see what love has done? What it’s done to me? “Window in the Skies” - U2

The song is a beautiful “Resurrection Ballad.” It extols the wonders of “what love has done” from God’s raising of Christ from the dead, to the many ways God’s love raises us to new life today! Jesus’ resurrection from the dead has opened forever a “window in the skies” through which streams of love and reconciliation flow!

The first verse stakes the claim that freedom and peace have come because death itself has been undone and now true life flows among us again.  “THE RULE HAS BEEN DISPROVED!” I love this line. Death is not the final word anymore, it is not the last chapter of human life. “THE STONE IT HAS BEEN MOVED” and forgiveness and new life are given to us all! God’s resurrection love does something wild ... it creates strange partners with its enemy-loving, hate-destroying, relationship-renewing ways. The power of this love is that it gets us out of “our heads” and into God’s “heart.” And from there our attention is captured to share the love that we have found – “Oh, can’t you see what love has done, what it’s done for me!” And this is all due to the powerful reality that “Love left a window in the skies.” Jesus’ resurrection opened the world to God’s love in a way that it can never be shut out again. Indeed, this love, God’s death-defeating resurrection love, will bring us to the promised land.

God loves you so much. He was willing to die for you. But death cannot hold back our God! This kind of love cannot be contained or captured. It’s this kind of love that enables us to live life each day as we make our way to the kingdom of God. Have a most blessed Easter!

– Pannell

TWO INSEPARABLES

Like a husband and wife, some things are meant to stay together. Such a duo is found in John 1:17 where the message of Jesus is pictured in contrast with the harsh law of Moses. There, two inseparables are spelled out that make Christianity unique. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Grace and truth seem at first to be opposites. In fact, the truths about human behavior that Jesus brought took law to a higher level. In what is known as the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus went to the roots of murder by identifying animosity as the real culprit. Underlying murder, he said, was the foundational sin of anger with another. This “truth,” along with many others Jesus brought, raised the bar for those who would aspire to be Christians. See Matthew 5, where several higher hurdles are pictured in Jesus’ teaching.

Grace, the twin of truth, makes following Jesus possible. He came to save sinners, and exemplified this by spending time with them. This was incomprehensible to law-minded Jews. See Luke 15:1-2. How grace and truth can be taught simultaneously is still difficult for many to grasp.

In the inseparable coupling of grace and truth, we come to know the meaning of the “gospel of Christ” that is used in the New Testament to describe the message of early preachers. It means “good news.” It is, it is!

Grace is such good news that some decouple it from truth, and make it everything. Apostle Paul heads us off when we begin to think that way. See Romans 6:1-4. Grace is not meant to be a stand-alone. It is not meant to be a license to sin. When we rise from the waters of baptism, Paul writes, we are to take on a new life.

On the other hand, many want to cling to the law and preach a graceless gospel - which is no gospel at all. Paul also addresses this divergence in the beginning of his first letter to Timothy. There he bluntly describes those kinds of teachers as not knowing what they are talking about. They have missed the heart of the message of Christ.

However, grace is very good news that can cover sin beyond baptism. Apostle John pictures the Christian life as “walking in the light,” with an ongoing appeal to grace for forgiveness of sin. See I John 1:5-10. That passage should bring tears of joy and resolve to an errant Christian.

The dual message of truth and grace that is echoed today is powerful when the gospel is shared by one man with another. In a world of many beaconing voices, its authenticity makes Christianity stand out among all other messages. It has captured my mind and heart, and given me purpose and strength in my waning years, despite my failures.

– James Gibbs

College Boxes  -- The end of another school year for college kids is fast approaching, which means finals will be here before they know it! We are getting ready to send the final round of boxes to them for this year. The boxes are set up on a table in the courtyard. Please bring snacks and goodies or the things that they like to church by this Sunday, April 20. The cost of shipping is about $16.00 a box, so you can help in that way also. Please contact Denise Beeks if you need more information.

Learn to Sew Teddy Bears  -- Liz Dunlap will be teaching a class on how to make teddy bears next Tuesday, April 22, at 11:30 a.m. in the Fireside Room. Please contact Liz or Dorothy Trimmer if you would like to join us!