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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2001
From the Pastor
MONDAY AFTER EASTER
Sometimes the most you can hope to expect out of a day or a week is a good cup of coffee.
Lately it seems I have had my share of days and weeks like this. First, my dog got sick. A trip to the vet ended up lasting two hours and before we left included x-rays and ultra sound and the news she needed surgery. Fortified with two types of medicine, added to the two she already takes got her through the weekend until Monday when she had her surgery. Incidentally, pets are not covered under my medical plan.
Next, a routine trip to the car dealer for an oil change ended up with a diagnosis that my car needed new brakes. I believed the way it was phrased to me was that it was "critical." What could I do? I gave the okay, but of course, it ended up taking all day and costing more than a whole year's worth of oil changes.
Third, I paid my Income Tax. Need I say more? Like I said sometimes the most you can hope to expect out of a day or week is a good cup of coffee.
There is, however, one other event that happened in the midst of these incidents. We celebrated Easter.
Now what can Easter possibly have to do with sick dogs, car maintenance and income tax? Maybe nothing. Maybe there is a great divide between what happens in our day to day life and what we proclaim and sing about on Sunday morning. Maybe there is no connection between such routine or unexpected things that happen during the week and what happens on Sunday morning.
Or, maybe there is a reason Christians begin the week with worship on Sunday morning, making it the entrance into all the other days of the week. Every Sunday is a mini Easter and every Sunday every Easter, we are asked, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" "He Lives," as the hymn proclaims, and his living presence is in the world, the other six days of the week and in our hearts.
Christ's presence in our life can help us in dealing with attitudes that can be self defeating and negative. Christ's presence can make us hopeful. And when the strain, burdens and cares of the other six days begin to overwhelm, Christ's presence becomes someone to lean upon, someone to rest in, someone to pray to.
We celebrated a glorious Easter at First Baptist, but unless we make the connection to Monday and Tuesday and all the other days of the week, we have missed the significance. The presence of God is pervasive. There is no boundary God cannot and does not cross. Everything is an option to God's incarnate grace - even a cup of coffee.
And, we have always, day by day, and hour by hour, the option of faith. We can choose to believe, as the psalmist, "Thou art with me," and remain open and on the outlook and receptive to the way God's presence will be made known to us and the grace God would impart every day of the week.
Dr. David W. Andersen
          
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