Dear Reader,
The season of Easter is a time of rejoicing, and due to Christ’s Easter resurrection we rejoice with a living hope!
So much you see and hear out in the world today is so depressing and connects to one of the “d’s”: disappointment, despair, disunity, doom, disaster and of course death. You can’t watch the news or watch YouTube social commentary without hearing about these depressing topics. But the church’s message is different and Easter is the reason.
All of world history has been dominated by disappointment and death. It began with Adam’s death, almost a thousand years after he sinned as recorded in the Book of Genesis, “Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.” And so it goes, on an on in Genesis chapter five, men are recorded as being born, having children and then dying. This sad history of death in the world held until our Lord Jesus Christ’s miraculous conception and then his Easter resurrection from the dead after his death by crucifixion on Good Friday. Like Adam, Jesus had no human father. Jesus, being God from eternity, was conceived in the womb of his mother, the virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, for us, for the world, and he died as God’s appointed sacrifice for our sins. But Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, finally ending the tragic human story of birth followed by death. Yes, Jesus died, but he rose again to new life and he ever lives at God the Father’s side in heaven. His promise to us is through trusting him as Lord and Saviour, we will have a life like his, that while interrupted by death, does not end in death!
Yes, in this world we have to deal with the d’s regularly, but Easter changes our despair to hope. No matter what challenges we face, or what difficulties may be looming in the world, we know that God loves us, which God proved in Jesus’ death for us. The message of Easter is God cares for us, and when this life ends, God will raise us from the dead by the power that enabled him to raise Jesus from the dead, so that when Christ returns to Earth on the Last Day it will be a day of new life for us. This is cause for rejoicing and living every day in hope.
If you would like to be strengthened with the good news of the Gospel and live and interact in a community of joyful Christians, I invite you to join us on Sundays at Grace. Here you will find individuals and families who are warm, caring, supportive and a joy to be around. But most importantly God will meet you here with his grace and mercy found in his holy Word and sacraments.
Sincerely,
Pastor Korsch
