We are celebrating Jesus and laughter and the joy that Easter brings us. Our theme today is speaking Minnesotan.
Do you think Jesus had a sense of humor? We don't often talk about that; we talk about his compassion and his love and his power and his grace. But if we read today's gospel with an eye toward his sense of humor—we can determine he was looking for a big laugh. “ how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye?” Picture someone with a log sticking out of their eye and you gain the perspective that that Jesus had a somewhat outlandish sense of humor.
We are celebrating Jesus and laughter and the joy that Easter brings us. Our theme today is speaking Minnesotan.
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Our Place in God's Universe
Psalm 4; 1 John 3: 1-7; Luke 24: 36b-48 April 19, 2015 A little girl asked her mother how human beings came to be here on the earth. She told her, “Well, first God made Adam and Eve and then they had children and so on and so on....” Later the daughter asked her father the same question. He told her, “Millions of years ago there were monkeys and the human race evolved from them.” Confused, the little girl returned to her mother and said, “Mom how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God and Dad said we were developed from monkeys?” The mother answered, “It's very simple, I told you about my side of the family and your father told about his.” I kinda wanted to make this joke about Julie and me, but neither of us descended from monkeys. This question of evolution and creation is one that divides some Christians...but I'm not preaching on evolution this morning. I want to address the fact that it was God who created; I want to expound on the wonders of creation, the vastness of God's wonderful universe, and then the amazing fact that, in this vastness, God chooses to love each one of us. Did you notice something missing in our Gospel reading this morning? There is no appearance of Jesus! That's right, Mark's original gospel account ends with the women fleeing in fear and saying nothing to anyone. We are much more used to the apostle John's ending, where Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and sees the stone rolled away. She fearfully tells the disciples; Peter and John race to the tomb and decide that Jesus has indeed risen. Then Jesus appears to Mary and the joyful news begins to be spread. But not in Mark's gospel. We know the whole story and our hymns sing of the wonder of that day. But not here; fear and silence on that first Easter morning.
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