{"id":1684,"date":"2014-04-29T16:55:09","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T20:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2014-05-08T15:54:55","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T19:54:55","slug":"whats-your-easter-story-42714","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=1684","title":{"rendered":"What’s YOUR Easter Story? (4\/27\/14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our sermon during the services on Sunday April 27 was given by Kimberly Dybeck.\u00a0 Kim is a seminarian student who is serving an internship with PUMC.\u00a0 During her time with our church she has coordinated our small groups and has been a huge inspiration.\u00a0 In a few weeks, her education will take her to another internship assignment, but we will always be grateful that she became part of our family.\u00a0 We were also blessed that she had the opportunity to share her first sermon with us…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Kim’s sermon was entitled “Seeing Jesus Again,” and the scripture was from John 20:13-28<\/span><\/a><\/span>…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Resurrection Story<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Last week (Easter Sunday), Kim and her husband were in Germany. On Easter morning they were awakened by the sound of church bells.\u00a0 Not the electronic Carillon type we have in our church, but BELLS!\u00a0 The kind you’d hear in a Gothic cathedral. \u00a0 Not a bad way to wake up on such a special day.\u00a0 And of course they wanted to go to church.\u00a0 But, being in Germany, it didn’t come as much of a surprise that all of the services that morning would be conducted in German!\u00a0 And while Kim’s husband speaks fluent German, translating constantly to his non-German speaking wife would be a bit of a distraction.\u00a0 So, they found a church which was giving a service in English later in the evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon attending that service, they noticed two things:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. This “American English” service was anything but American.\u00a0 English speaking people from all over the world were there; all sorts of accents and garb.\u00a0 All of them celebrating the resurrected Lord.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Because of the differences in time, the service they ended up attending coincided with our own service at PUMC. Joined by prayer the the Spirit, it was almost as if they were in two places at the same time.\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It was a special Easter that they will always remember…\n<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

    Yo Adrian!<\/span><\/h3>\n

    In the movie Rocky, a beaten and bruised Rocky Balboa is given the championship belt.\u00a0 He painfully lifts it over his head and cries out for his wife.\u00a0 He is the winner.\u00a0 He was beaten, but he was on top of the world.\u00a0 If we were to write the script about Jesus, we might have gone for such an ending.\u00a0 Send him back to the scene of the cross; to the Sanhedrin; to those who cried “Barabbas”; to those who shouted “Crucify Him!”\u00a0 We would have wanted a winner rubbing it in.<\/span><\/p>\n

    But that wasn’t Jesus’ story.\u00a0 He had defeated the worst that Satin and the world could throw at Him.\u00a0 He could have gone anywhere, been anywhere, been with any person after He broke from the tomb.\u00a0 But He wanted to be with His disciples.\u00a0 He wanted to give His friends a Resurrection Story that they could keep and share forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    To Mary…<\/span><\/h3>\n

    When he appeared to Mary before anyone else, Jesus gave her a resurrection story.\u00a0 She was the one who gave the news that He was Risen!\u00a0 Forever, she will carry the grace of receiving the news from an angel.\u00a0 Of speaking to a man she thought was a gardener.\u00a0 Of being the first to see the risen Lord.\u00a0 Of hearing Him softy speak her name, “Mary.”<\/span><\/p>\n

    <\/h3>\n

    To the Disciples…<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Fearing for their lives, the disciples remained secluded behind locked doors when Mary rushed in with the news.\u00a0 But it wasn’t until several hours later when Jesus slipped through those locked doors and appeared to the Disciples Himself.\u00a0 The disciples’ resurrection story was one of fear that turned to peace.\u00a0 Sadness that turned to Joy.\u00a0 Jesus came to them and said “Peace be with you!”\u00a0 With the creating breath of God, He gave them the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And the disciples took it in.\u00a0 They received the gift that their risen Savior was offering.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    To Thomas…<\/span><\/h3>\n

    For some reason,Thomas wasn’t in the room when Jesus appeared to the disciples.\u00a0 We may never know why he wasn’t there.\u00a0 Maybe he was afraid.\u00a0 Maybe he was confused and wondering why he trusted Jesus.\u00a0 Maybe he was ashamed of Jesus.\u00a0 But Jesus appeared later just to convince and re-assure this one disciple.\u00a0 He showed Thomas his side.\u00a0 He made Thomas feel his wounds.\u00a0 Our stories may be shameful.\u00a0 We may have made mistakes we don’t want to include as we try to create our own “Rocky Story.”\u00a0 We may feel dead inside.\u00a0 Worn out.\u00a0 Hopeless.\u00a0 But Thomas received the resurrection story that God does in fact break through death.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    So What’s Your Story?<\/span><\/h3>\n

    So what’s your Easter story?\u00a0 Where have you seen the resurrected Christ in a special, personal way?\u00a0 We may be carrying around burdens of shame.\u00a0 We may be trapped by painful memories.\u00a0 We may not be like Rocky hoisting the victory belt over our heads.\u00a0 We may want to hide.\u00a0 Even victories come with scars.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    But God…\u00a0 But God breaks through. Easter reminds us that the Bible constantly repeats the phrase, “But God__”.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    But God can give us our own resurrection story.\u00a0\u00a0 He calls us to let people come close enough to us so that they can be touched by the story He gives us.\u00a0 God give gives us a resurrection story so we can share it others.\u00a0 God’s love still raises us up today; He still breathes His Spirit into us.\u00a0 But it’s up to us to receive that Spirit and tell God’s story with our own story.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    May we all join with Mary and proclaim, He is Risen!\u00a0 “I have seen the Lord!”<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Our sermon during the services on Sunday April 27 was given by Kimberly Dybeck.\u00a0 Kim is a seminarian student who is serving an internship with PUMC.\u00a0 During her time with our church she has coordinated our small groups and has been a huge inspiration.\u00a0 In a few weeks, her education will take her to another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[94,88,63,75,87,89],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-easterweek","tag-jesus","tag-newlife","tag-spirit","tag-victory","tag-worship-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1750,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/1750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}