THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR

On Easter Sunday, the sign in front of the church said "Jesus is Alive! Are You?"

People have dead zones in their lives. Some say they live for the weekend. Does that mean they're as good as dead five days a week?

A recent article in Sports Illustrated on "Steroids in America" reveals that in addition to all the other chemical enhancements people use to combat the effects of aging, many Americans are now using human growth and testosterone. It could be that people use artificial life supplements because there are gaping holes in their real lives.

Some of these gaping holes are broken relationships. Each person has offended, or been offended by, another person. They can't get past it, they don't speak to each other. Each is dead to the other.

The message of Easter joy is that Jesus took all of our dead zones to the grave with him. Then God raised him from death, and he invites us into his family where we can share his resurrection life, real life.

This real life springs from a dynamic relationship with God, a relationship glimpsed in our human relationships of love. My wife's love for me is a gift, pure grace. I cannot earn it. I don't deserve it. Yet it calls from me my full commitment, my full devotion, giving myself in love. Our love relationships in marriage, family, and friendship transform and fulfill us. They take us out of ourselves so we can be most fully ourselves.

God's love for us is a gift, pure grace. We cannot earn it. We don't deserve it. Yet it calls from us our full commitment, full devotion, giving ourselves in love. It is a gift that costs us all we are and all we have (to use the description written by theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer). It transforms us and fulfills us. It takes us out of ourselves so we can be most fully ourselves.

And it is the foundation for transforming all of our human relationships, and healing all the dead zones in our lives. More than that: it is the foundation for healing and reconciliation in our homes, our community, our world. As people who have given themselves to God in love, we are called by God to live new life with all those around us, and spread the message of God's love. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16)