This Sunday’s readings: John 20:10-29

Reflections

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.
~ Martin Luther, German Theologian, Reformer

Let us consider this settled, that no one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection.
~ John Calvin, 1509-1564, French Theologian, Reformer

Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.
~ N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.
~ Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.
~ Charles Colson, 1931-2012, Political Advisor, ‘hatchet-man’

This Sunday’s readings: John 17:1-5

Reflections

As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all – the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.
~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Christianity set itself the goal of fulfilling man’s unattainable desires, but for that very reason ignored his attainable desires. By promising man eternal life, it deprived him of temporal life, by teaching him to trust in God’s help it took away his trust in his own powers; by giving him faith in a better life in heaven, it destroyed his faith in a better life on earth and his striving to attain such a life. Christianity gave man what his imagination desires, but for that very reason failed to give him what he really and truly desires.
~ Ludwig Feuerbach, Lectures on the Essence of Religion

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
~ C. S. Lewis

God’s love is not an invitation to passivity. Instead, it is a call to wise and risky creativity.
~ Dan B. Allender, To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future

The point cannot be overemphasized: your plight is also your redemption. The Bible assumes that its stories are also our story… We are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their stories are a paradigm of our own. Each of us is called, redeemed, and exiled – again and again.
~ Dan B. Allender

The Christian is the really free human—he is free to have imagination. This too is our heritage. The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.
~ Francis Schaeffer, Pastor, founder of L’Abri