After celebrating Christ’s resurrection with my family yesterday in the beautiful Spring weather of Western Pennsylvania (unlike LAST YEAR’S SNOW!), I didn’t bother to go online or check my email. BUT, what a wonderful surprise and continued celebration to read these words from John Updike and Rev. James E. Laurence. Take time to read BOTH!
If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain … But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that “Seven Stanzas at Easter” by John Updike was first written for a Lutheran congregation. But that’s not why I am sharing it here. I am sharing it here because it is, to me, a great re-telling of 1 Corinthians 15, and a timely reminder that our faith is entirely based on the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. If “Christ has not been raised” then we are “of all people most to be pitied.” But if he did, then it changes everything. Absolutely everything. And I have staked my life and my hope on this wonderful belief that his…
the deepening ground 