Pastors Message – April, 2014 – First Presbyterian Church of Big Flats

“We miss the point if we [don’t make Easter] a life-changing commitment. We fail to realize that Easter demands as much of us now as it did of the apostles then. Most of all, we miss the very meaning of the Easters that we are each dealing with in our own lives, in our own time.”
Joan Chittier

Dear Friends,

Through the living Christ we experience resurrection in all of creation. Resurrection is in the hopeful echo that returns from even the loudest cry of despair. Resurrection is the whisper of peace within the shout of violence. Resurrection reminds us that life is abundant and that even paths through death can lead us to new life.

Someone once said fear of death never helped someone live longer but it kept them from living. This Easter morning there was ¡§An Empty Tomb¡¨. How do we as Christians live life without a physical presence? Can we rise to the Easter challenge? Like the first disciples are we frightened to enter an empty tomb because of the challenges that lie within it? If we enter the tomb despite our fears and clothe ourselves with the linens of Christ, can we then leave ready to serve our world? Are we willing to struggle to find Christ and then be ‘little Christs’ in the world? Do we view the church and the body of Christ as separate entities? When we are dead and gone what will Big Flats Presbyterian be known for ¡X a place that cared for its widows, strangers to our doors, the handicapped, broken people seeking peace, and the poor in our community? Will we strive to empower our children with a spirit that is peaceful and respectful of others? Or, will we be remembered as a sepulcher of dead dogma, doctrines and traditions?

Let us remember that the resurrection tells us that ¡§Love is Alive¡¨ in all circumstances.

Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Peace and Blessed Easter,