Stonybrook's Sermon

Today I went to Stonybrook United Methodist Church and really enjoyed the sermon and I really gave me so much food for thought that I decided to blog about it. The sermon title was "Resurrection Victory: Now What?" To be completely honest, I usually go to church and hope that I don't have lipstick on my teeth when I smile broadly at complete strangers, I try not to let my mind wander so far that I lose track of the message and start the head bob that signals I didn't get enough sleep, and I definitely try not to be too judgemental of anyone with a microphone. Today I didn't have to worry about any of that. The pastor was definitely on to something. Where do we go now that Christ is risen? Usually it's a build up until Easter, then we tend to not bring it up again until next year. I especially liked his timeline leading up to Christ's death: Jesus and the disciples enter Jerusalem under grand terms, then Jesus kicks butt at the temple. You gotta think that the disciples where high-fiving themselves. Then they get to the last supper, do you think they had any idea of what was going to happen? They are kinda having this great week, then Jesus gets arrested and we all know what happened. On Saturday, what do you think the disciples did? What were they thinking? Were they scared? What or where were they going to go without their teacher? And then we have the 40 days until the ascension. This is a fantastic story. I started thinking about how Jesus had been preparing the disciples for this moment. I think Jesus' death was definitely a catalyst to push the disciples in the direction they needed to go on and preach the word without Jesus. I think all of this gave them the confidence they needed to go on. The sermon definitely generated alot of thought for me, not to mention that most of the diciples became martyrs themselves. I hope I am not losing something in my paraphrasing. I went to the church's website but the sermon wasn't uploaded yet. When it is, I will post it.