He is Risen!

"We're having the children's bell choir again, since the Summers Six were not here earlier," our son Mark announced laughingly as the children lined up in front of the congregation. I laughed, too, since he is the eldest of our six kids. Turns out this family's name is spelled Sommers, but the coincidence is amazing. We had four boys and 2 girls, while they had four girls and 2 boys!

Mark drew his sermon from I Corinthians 15:13-14, where Paul puts forth the dichotomy of what it would be like if there is no resurrection. "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been  raised, our preaching is dead, and so is your faith."

"Why then have Easter?" Pastor Mark asked, "Why drag everyone from bed, get the kids ready, look for lost  shoes, and go to all the trouble?" (Later, he laughed again, after learning that was indeed the case when the Sommers family was late because of their small son's missing shoe!)

His father and I do not often get to hear our son preach, and we were bursting with parental pride and gratefulness to God at his eloquent and heartfelt message. Our spirits agreed with the several people who greeted us after church with nothing but fervent appreciation and love for their pastor and his wife.

And it's no wonder, as what we saw from them that morning was nothing short of amazing. The church is a satellite church from a larger campus that for the past year has been using the facilities of an elementary school for services. This entails literally taking a church from a box (truck) and setting it up every Sunday morning!  Teams of dedicated members busily and efficiently set up chairs in the cafeteria-turned-sanctuary, partition off children's classes and a nursery, place musical instruments on the platform, and dozens of other feats, including turning it back into a lunchroom, unfolding tables to leave it as they found it!

"Please stay on the canvas when we take communion," Mark advised. It seems the school doesn't appreciate any grape juice dripped on the carpet. "Just receive the elements there and return to your seats," he instructed. A large canvas had been taped down at the back of the room for that purpose.

Although the Last Supper was the scene of the first communion, now known as Maundy Thursday, and Jesus died on Good  Friday and rose on Easter Sunday, we took the bread and juice in remembrance that morning, being careful not to spill the representation of the blood, which was spilled so freely for us at Calvary. 

As Paul said in I Corinthians 15:20, "But Christ has indeed been  raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." He is risen!