Good Morning All,
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “Attack Against Militias Puts Cease-Fire at Risk!” “Economic Outlook Worst Since 1973!” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “Candidates Weigh in on Housing Market!” “Missile Parts Sent to Taiwan by Mistake!” “Ice Shelf Collapse Puts Other Glacial Ice at Risk!” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “Two Die as Crane Section Falls !” “Detroit Mayor, Ex-aide pleads not guilty!” “Year-Round or Not?” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
The above headlines come from this morning’s News & Observer. I searched and searched for a story filled with “good” news but to no avail. I challenge you to do the same. I guess one could use the Sports section as a source of good news; but only if YOUR team happened to have won. One could peruse the Life section and declare that the recipes and food information is filled with at least some goodness. But all in all, today’s stories are all about tragedies and crises here and around the globe. I daresay the same is true for the television news broadcasts. I recently heard someone say, “If it bleeds, it leads…” meaning only stories about blood and guts or some kind of tragedy or crisis, make the top of the news hour.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “I want to run a few tests to make sure what we’re looking at…” “I’m sorry, he didn’t survive the surgery…” “The tests have determined that you have…” “I just don’t want to be married to you anymore…” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “We need to downsize and your division is the first one to be dismissed…” “I regret to inform you that we must foreclose on your home immediately…” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “My life is a real mess…” “I have lost my way and can’t seem to get a grip on my life…” “I’m not sure I have anything to live for…” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
As I muse about the headlines as well as the news that touches us even more personally and place them alongside our Easter morning greeting, “Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed,” I see God’s Good News peppered throughout all the bad news. And I am reminded that God is in the midst of it all--the good, the bad and the ugly. I also see the Easter message declaring that God’s miracle of Christ’s resurrection is the source of my strength and yours as we face whatever comes our way in this life.
God’s Good News declares that death is finished! When we first think of death we know it as an end to one’s earthly existence. Yet death also comes to us in the form of broken relationships; broken dreams; broken lives; loss of livelihood; times when we feel we have lost all hope. But God’s Good News breaks through any and all death as God restores new life; offers us new beginnings; new approaches; a new sense of purpose and well being. God’s Good News brings us hope in this life as we live in the undying hope of the Resurrection…as God makes good on all of God’s promises…
Marilyn Brown Oden in Wilderness Wanderings-a Lenten Pilgrimage says it this way: “Christ is risen in the world…The Light has come into the darkness! The new mystery enfolds us, lifts us…Christ is risen in our lives…Nothing will ever be quite the same again…we journey in a new kind of light, in a new kind of living, a new kind of giving that brings life to others and to ourselves…Christ is risen in the Church…We draw together in community in the name of Jesus Christ…We have been given the Light of Christ; the Word of hope and love that teaches us how to live together; the Waters of Baptism; the Lord’s Supper…We encircle all of God’s people with the empowering light of holy love. We go to the edge and dare to leap; and miracle of miracles, we find as feeble as we are, together we can soar!”
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Alleluia!
Blessings, Joanne
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “Attack Against Militias Puts Cease-Fire at Risk!” “Economic Outlook Worst Since 1973!” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “Candidates Weigh in on Housing Market!” “Missile Parts Sent to Taiwan by Mistake!” “Ice Shelf Collapse Puts Other Glacial Ice at Risk!” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “Two Die as Crane Section Falls !” “Detroit Mayor, Ex-aide pleads not guilty!” “Year-Round or Not?” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
The above headlines come from this morning’s News & Observer. I searched and searched for a story filled with “good” news but to no avail. I challenge you to do the same. I guess one could use the Sports section as a source of good news; but only if YOUR team happened to have won. One could peruse the Life section and declare that the recipes and food information is filled with at least some goodness. But all in all, today’s stories are all about tragedies and crises here and around the globe. I daresay the same is true for the television news broadcasts. I recently heard someone say, “If it bleeds, it leads…” meaning only stories about blood and guts or some kind of tragedy or crisis, make the top of the news hour.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “I want to run a few tests to make sure what we’re looking at…” “I’m sorry, he didn’t survive the surgery…” “The tests have determined that you have…” “I just don’t want to be married to you anymore…” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “We need to downsize and your division is the first one to be dismissed…” “I regret to inform you that we must foreclose on your home immediately…” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! “My life is a real mess…” “I have lost my way and can’t seem to get a grip on my life…” “I’m not sure I have anything to live for…” Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
As I muse about the headlines as well as the news that touches us even more personally and place them alongside our Easter morning greeting, “Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed,” I see God’s Good News peppered throughout all the bad news. And I am reminded that God is in the midst of it all--the good, the bad and the ugly. I also see the Easter message declaring that God’s miracle of Christ’s resurrection is the source of my strength and yours as we face whatever comes our way in this life.
God’s Good News declares that death is finished! When we first think of death we know it as an end to one’s earthly existence. Yet death also comes to us in the form of broken relationships; broken dreams; broken lives; loss of livelihood; times when we feel we have lost all hope. But God’s Good News breaks through any and all death as God restores new life; offers us new beginnings; new approaches; a new sense of purpose and well being. God’s Good News brings us hope in this life as we live in the undying hope of the Resurrection…as God makes good on all of God’s promises…
Marilyn Brown Oden in Wilderness Wanderings-a Lenten Pilgrimage says it this way: “Christ is risen in the world…The Light has come into the darkness! The new mystery enfolds us, lifts us…Christ is risen in our lives…Nothing will ever be quite the same again…we journey in a new kind of light, in a new kind of living, a new kind of giving that brings life to others and to ourselves…Christ is risen in the Church…We draw together in community in the name of Jesus Christ…We have been given the Light of Christ; the Word of hope and love that teaches us how to live together; the Waters of Baptism; the Lord’s Supper…We encircle all of God’s people with the empowering light of holy love. We go to the edge and dare to leap; and miracle of miracles, we find as feeble as we are, together we can soar!”
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Alleluia!
Blessings, Joanne
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