Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon
Wednesday, April 16,2014
- FIVE
‘Easter messages o f fa ith and hope from
(beai ministers
Encounter the risen
Christ
From the desert to the
resurrection
In the holy season of Lent, the Church sets out once
again on the path leading to Easter. With Jesus as her
guide, and walking in his footsteps, she invites us to
cross the desert. The history of salvation has given the
desert a profound religious meaning. Linder the leadership
of Moses and later, enlightened by other Prophets,
the Chosen People were able, amid deprivations and
sufferings, to experience God’s faithful presence and his
mercy. They fed upon the bread which came down from
heaven and quenched their thirst with the water which
sprang from the rock. The People of God grew in faith
and in hope for the coming of the Messiah who would
redeem them.
It was also in the desert that John the Baptist preached,
and the crowds came to him in order to receive, in the
waters of the Jordan, baptism of repentance. The desert
was the place for a conversion aimed at welcoming the
One who comes to triumph over the sorrow and death
which are the wages of sin. Jesus, the Messiah of the
poor whom he fills with good things (Lk. 1:53), began
his mission by becoming like those who are hungry and
thirsty in the desert.
These Lenten days helped us to meditate upon the
word of life which Christ left to his Church in order to
enlighten the journey of each of her members. Recognize
the voice of Jesus who speaks to you, especially during
this Lenten season, in the Gospel, in the liturgical
celebrations, with the encouragement of your pastors.
Listen to the voice of Jesus who, tired and thirsty, says to
the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well: “Give me a drink”
(Jn. 4:7). Look upon Jesus nailed to the Cross, dying,
and listen to his faint voice: “I thirst” (Jn. 19:28). Today,
Christ repeats his request and relives the torments of his
Passion in all of us.
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the
first fruits of those who have died. For since death came
through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has
also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam,
so all will be made alive in Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:20-22)
In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead! He was
not only raised from the dead to prove to us that He is God;
He was raised to prove to us that “We will not all die, but
we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the
dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable body must put on imperishability,
and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the
perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal
body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written
will be fulfilled: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your
sting?'” (1 Cor. 15:52-55; Is. 25:8)
My dear friends in Christ, the glorious Resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ, witnessed by hundreds in the early
days of the Church, is our proof that one day we will all be
united as one eternal family. This life is temporary. What
awaits us is so much better and greater. Until we reach
that day, let us live the joy of Easter with all our brothers
and sisters in Christ. Let us make a special effort to reach
out to those who do not share in our joy and especially
those who have been forgotten so they may manifest their
joy outwardly as we are doing today. As of today, may
you all go forth in the Spirit of Christ and bring the joy
of the Lord to all those who touch your lives! Halleluiah!
He is Risen!
Wishing you a blessed and joyful Easter,
Rev Kumar Udagandla.
St. Patrick 's and St. William s Catholic churches,
Heppner and lone
If you find the resurrection hard to believe, you're
in good company. No one believed it at first. Everyone
doubted, and the first reaction to the empty tomb was
fear and confusion, not faith.
But something changed. The followers of Jesus had
an encounter with their risen Lord. He appeared to them.
He spoke w ith them. He ate with them. They experienced
a living Jesus, and it changed them.
But that was a long time ago. We live in a time when
all things religious are too often met with skepticism.
Among many, Christianity has developed a reputation
for hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness and little ability
to walk the talk in any consistent way. How can we
believe that Jesus rose when those who now claim to be
his followers seem so unlike him so much of the time?
And we live in a time when scientific evidence and cold
hard facts shape our thinking. How can we believe that
Jesus rose when there was no trail cam on site to prove
it?
And why would we want to? Because to believe in
Jesus is to know that you are loved. Period. No matter
who you are or what you’ve done.
Admittedly, believing that Jesus rose can be tough.
It means searching for facts and opinions and right
answers. Believing in Jesus, on the other hand, is built on
trust—trusting that Jesus’ victory over death really does
show us just how much God loves us, and to what great
lengths God will go to set us free us from fear and sin
and hopelessness. Opinion is rarely life-changing. Trust
is life-giving. And trust can be built through experience.
The good news is that it’s still possible to experience
the living Jesus for yourself—through scripture, prayer,
worship, service to others, and a deepening relationship
with a community of believers who are unafraid to share
their stories about all the ways God has been at work in
their lives. And you can sometimes still find those things
all assembled in one place: a church.
This Easter, take a risk and go in search of an
experience with our resurrected Jesus. Find your way
into a church. There, in that gathering of sinners and
saints, the faithful and those still struggling with doubt,
you just might be in the right place to have an encounter
with the living Jesus. It could change you forever.
Pastor Katy Anderson
Hope Lutheran Church & All Saints Episcopal Church
Saved by the blood o f
the lamb
Happy Easter! Many people I know say Happy
Resurrection day. That’s because they want to make sure
people know what they mean when they give people a
greeting on Easter. Easter is the day we celebrate the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the Bible, in Exodus, it tells about when God was
preparing to lead the Israelites out o f Egypt. He sent
10 plagues because Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, did not
want to let the Israelites leave. The last plague was the
death of the firstborn of every family, even including the
livestock. The only way for this not to happen was to put
blood from a sacrificed lamb on your doorpost. In Exodus
12:24 it says, “For the Lord will pass through to strike the
Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and
on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and
not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike
you.” They were saved by the blood of a lamb.
So it is with Jesus' sacrifice on the cross; we are saved
by the blood of the lamb, the perfect lamb. Because Jesus
died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected, our sins
are covered by His perfect sacrifice. On that first Easter
morning some of Jesus’ followers went to the tomb where
Jesus body had been taken after He died on the cross.
Mark 16:3-6 says, “And they said among themselves,
‘Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb
for us?’ But when they looked up, they saw the stone
had been rolled way— for it was very large. And entering
the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white
robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But
he said to them ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus ot
Nazareth, who was crucified. He is Risen! He is not here.
See the place where they laid Him.'”
Christian author and speaker Max Lacado wrote in
one of his books that, when he was reading about Jesus
resurrection, it occurred to him that the stone was not
rolled away for Jesus to get out—Jesus didn't need any
help getting out— it was for us to look in and see that He
had risen. 1 hope as you celebrate Easter you remember the
sacrifice o f Jesus and how the blood of the lamb (Jesus)
covers the sin of those who choose to follow Him.
Happy Resurrection Day!
Pastor Lloyd Love,
Heppner Christian Church
Move over, Easter
Bunny
The road Christ
walked to be with us
During Lent this year, our congregation used a
devotional book called Lent for Everyone by N.T. Wright.
It is a study of the book of Matthew, and I have enjoyed
it a great deal. What I was reminded of as we progressed
through the story of Christ this year was how difficult the
journey was for Jesus. He goes through a multitude of
confrontations, deals with stubborn and thick disciples,
has friends who doubt him, and that doesn’t even scratch
the surface of the difficult cultural situation he was bom
into, or the really hard part of the final journey to cross.
When we think of Christ as Emmanuel, or ‘God with
us,’ and think about how difficult Jesus' life really was, it
is amazing that God wants to be with us that bad. There
had to have been a few million shortcuts God could have
taken to avoid all of those difficulties, and yet God came
to be with us in the form of a subversive man who was
willing to be in relationship with us even in the midst of
our flaws and foibles.
And that is but one of the miracles of Easter. As we
come to the day when we celebrate the living Christ, who
overcomes death and lives again, may we be reminded
that the same Christ longs to be with us, exactly where
and as we are, even while calling us to move and become
our full selves.
My prayer is that your Easter is a season that is filled
with love and wonder.
Pastor Stacey Shelton
lone Community Church
These Jacob sheep lambs owned by Dan and Sandra Van Liew
present a living—and lively— picture of the Easter season as
they graze on the hill overlooking Heppner. Photo by Sandra
Van Liew
Holy Week and
Easter Services
A fe w
o f th e
c o m m u n i t y ’s churches
have pl a nne d extra
services for the coming
week. Following are those
schedules submitted to the
Gazette-Times:
Community Sunrise
Service
The South M orrow Service at the M orrow
7
a
m. E aster morning,
C o u n t y M i n i s t e r i a l County Fairgrounds at 7
April 20, at the Morrow
A ssociation will hold a a.m. Easter morning, April
County Fairgrounds
C o m m u n i t y S u n r i s e 20. All are welcome.
Easter sunrise service
planned in Heppner
Affordable Family Eyewear
Marchon & Viva 2014 Trunk Sale
Friday, April 25th
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A
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10 4 5
n
First
st, H e rm isto n
5 4 1 -5 6 7 - 3 7 9 0
St. Patri ck’s Catholic
Church
Thursday, April 17, Mass
o f the Lord’s Supper,
5 p.m. with adoration
until midnight
Friday, April 18. Praying
the Stations o f the
Cross, noon
Passion o f the Lord
service, 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 19, Easter
Vigil Mass. 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 20, Easter
Day Mass. 11 a.m.
Shared Ministry of Hope
Lut heran and All
Saints Episcopal
Monday
through
W ednesday o f Holy
Week, Evening Prayer
will he offered at All
Saints at 5:30 p.m.
nightly.
Maundy Thursday and
Good Friday services
will be held jointly with
the United Methodist
Church:
Thursday, April 17, Maundy
Thursday service at All
Saints, 7 p.m.
Friday, April 18. Good
Friday service at the
M ethodist Church, 7
p.m.
Sunday, April 20, Easter
breakfast at All Saints.
8-9:30 a.m.
Easter services at All
Saints, 10 a.m.
b