Randy Wray’s Blog

This morning, at Arlington, we enjoyed a unique praise and worship experience celebrating the risen Lord. Our experience was unique in that our celebration of worship was both in English and in Spanish.

A major part of the Arlington difference is our effort and emphasis in multi-cultural ministry. How fitting it was to celebrate the risen Lord with brothers and sisters from different languages and different cultures.

We were challenged this morning by Lamar’s message concerning the risen Christ. Lamar spoke of the transformation, the change not only in Jesus but in those to whom Jesus appeared following his resurrection. We were challenged, beginning with this week, to live in the glow of the resurrection.

Listening to Lamar (and grateful for the chance – if only for a Sunday – to sit and listen) I was challenged in these two areas:

First, It struck me the way some try to downplay Easter Sunday with words like, “we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every Sunday.” Is that true? Each week, each Sunday do we really celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ? I know some will say that the Lord’s Supper is a celebration of the resurrection and yes in its original context this was true.

But I’m not so sure that the way in which we observe the Lord’s Supper is a fitting celebration of the risen Lord. I fear we rely solely upon obedience to a command - as a specific component of an assembly to represent the resurrection - without calling people to live and walk in the certainty of the resurrection.

As one who plans weekly worship assemblies, I need to give more thought, more intention, more emphasis to those expressions of worship which draw us into the glow of the resurrection.

Second, each night we pray with our children and we specifically say “Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for” (and we mention our children by name). That Jesus died for them is something for which I am most grateful – but that is not the end of the story – it is just the beginning.

Now, in addition to this statement of thanks, we will start thanking God for bringing Jesus back to life that Madison and Reese might one day be with Jesus for eternity.

That God brought Jesus back to life is God’s way of promising new life to each of us. The resurrected Christ is God’s pledge, God’s promise, that we too will rise, that we too will be changed.

We who walk and live in the shadow of the cross need to begin experiencing life in the glow of the resurrection. I am not saying we should stray from the shadow of the cross. I am saying that the cross is only the beginning of a larger story – a story which is good news only because of the resurrection.

The trumpet will sound, we will be changed so let’s begin living in the glow of the resurrection.