EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Messages of Easter hope from area churches
From Death to Life,
Hatred to Love
He is risen, He is risen indeed.
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter—the last
and first days of Jesus Christ, celebrated by Christians
throughout the world for the last 2,000 years. A journey
born of jealousy, hatred and death that culminates in
resurrection, life and love.
The Bible tells this story in several different ways.
Some readings give us glimpses of what’s to come and
some, like the book of Mark, give vivid details of those
last days.
Let’s imagine, for a moment, what that might have
looked like: Envision a dusty, dirty area outside the city
of Jerusalem. Imagine being with a group of your friends
who described having heard Jewish leaders talking about
a man they say claimed to be King of the Jews. How
absurd, you say…that can’t be true.
Imagine going with your friends into the streets, be-
ing pushed and shoved and actually moved by the force
of the crowds who are mocking, spitting and jeering at a
man. A man clothed in a purple robe. A man so close you
can almost touch his garment, and then that man looks at
you from under his crown of thorns and you freeze. You
realize you are staring into the eyes of the Son of God.
The eyes of love and forgiveness and light. The eyes of
the Great I Am. Just imagine. Yes, just imagine.
Rev. Adam Hamilton suggests in his book, 24 Hours
that Changed the World, that “It is this picture, this
shamefully cruel and inhumane sport at the expense of a
tormented man, that we need to fix on; for it is here that
we get a clear and tragic glimpse of what humanity did
when God took on flesh and walked among us, Jesus could
have destroyed them all with a word.”
But he didn’t. Jesus chose instead to go to the cross
knowing that the power of God’s love would overcome
his death through resurrection.
As Christians, we share the power of that resurrec-
tion. The God of love, who raised Jesus to new life, works
in and through us so that we, as followers of Jesus, can
joyfully continue his work in the world.
Join us Sunday at 10:30 a.m. as we celebrate a jour-
ney into the resurrected life with music, readings and a
message of hope and love.
Heppner United Methodist Church is located at 175
West Church Street in Heppner.
Patty Nance, Pastor; Cara Osmin, Pastor
Heppner United Methodist Church
Holy Week & Easter services
in your community
Area churches extend an
open invitation to whoever
would like to participate in
the week’s services:
Easter Sunrise Service
Easter morning, April 5,
7 a.m. community sunrise
service at Les Payne Field
in Heppner.
Christian Life Center
Easter, April 5, 10:30 a.m.
morning worship
Heppner United Methodist
Church
Easter, April 5, 10:30 a.m.
morning worship
See the Shared Ministry
schedule for other Holy Week
services.
Valby Lutheran Church
Easter, April 5, 10 a.m. morn-
ing worship.
Shared Ministry of Hope
Lutheran and All Saints
Episcopal
Maundy Thursday, April 2, 7
p.m. at Hope
Good Friday, April 3, 7 p.m.
at All Saints
Easter, April 5, 10 a.m.
Sunday festival worship
with communion at Hope.
Church of the Nazarene
Easter, April 5, 10:30 a.m.
morning worship
St. Patrick’s Catholic
Church
Wednesday, April 1, 7 p.m.
Through the Crucifixion
to the Resurrection
If you’re reading this on Wednesday or Thursday,
you’re not too late! There’s still time this week to experi-
ence the resurrection story in all its fullness by remember-
ing what came first: a death. And not just any death…the
unjust and brutal death of God’s own son.
The joy of Easter Sunday is hollow without the trag-
edy of Good Friday. So, if you can, attend a Friday service
that looks this death in the face and recognizes that we
are the ones with hearts as hard as nails—hard enough to
nail an innocent man to a murderous cross.
And if you can’t get to church, find a Bible and read
two chapters from the Gospel of John: 18 and 19. Then,
when Sunday dawns, you can turn to John 20 and hear
what is just the beginning of the rest of God’s story: that
Jesus rose out of death to life.
This great mystery changes our story—past, present
and future. Our past sins are erased from God’s memory.
Our present is freed from the fear of death and the burden
of our past; freed to experience God’s unconditional love
now. And our future in God’s presence is certain for all
who call on the name of the Lord.
But it takes a death to know this kind of life. It takes
an encounter with the Crucified One to meet the Risen
One in all his glory.
Rev. Katy Anderson
Hope Lutheran and All Saints Episcopal churches
The Beauty of Humanity
Oftentimes when people talk to me about the tasks of
ministry they say that they think it would be the most fun
to do weddings. I do enjoy doing weddings. There is lots
of joy and love to go around. But something I am always
a little hesitant to admit is that I cherish doing funerals.
Not because I am morbid or twisted, but because people
are different when they come to funerals. There is a sense
of vulnerability and raw love that is present at most fu-
nerals and memorials that just isn’t there for most other
moments of life. You see who people really are when they
are grieving and, what I would say after witnessing these
moments for several years is, 99.9 percent of humanity
is really amazingly beautiful.
As we head toward our Easter celebrations this week,
it strikes me how amazing it is that God sees this beauty
in us too. The story of the end of Christ’s earthly life is
so horrific, portraying the worst of humanity. And yet,
instead of God just ditching us after we had the audac-
ity to kill his beloved son, God continues to be with us,
returning once again, this time in the form of the risen
Christ, to make sure we really got the message that God’s
love is unconditional.
As we have our Easter celebrations on Sunday, may
we remember the beauty of humanity. May we remember
that God sees the beauty in us, and invites us to see it in
one another, as well.
Happy Easter!
Pastor Stacy Shelton
Ione Community Church
Holy Mass and Glorious
Adoration
Holy Thursday, April 2, 7
p.m. Mass of the Lord’s Sup-
per, Eucharistic Adoration
Good Friday, April 3, Sta-
tions of the Cross at noon, 7
p.m. Passion of the Lord
Holy Saturday, April 4, 7
p.m. Easter Vigil Mass
Easter, April 5, 11 a.m. Eas-
ter Holy Mass
St. William’s Catholic
Church
Good Friday, April 3, 5 p.m.
Stations of the Cross
Easter, April 5, 8:45 a.m.
Easter Holy Mass
Ione Community Church
Easter, April 5, 9:30 a.m.
brunch followed by Easter
worship service at 11 a.m.
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The Greatest Statement
Ever Spoken
In John 11:25-26 Jesus said, “I am the resurrection,
and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in
me shall never die.”
Norman Vincent Peale has said, “This is the greatest
statement ever made by God or man.” It is not great be-
cause of its eloquence; nor because of the lofty concepts
embraced; nor because it presents great moral and philo-
sophic contributions to humanity. It is a great statement
because the person making it assured its truthful reality.
Any person having been raised from the dead prior
to Christ experienced only a resuscitation. They went on
to live a normal physical life and die a normal death. No
one had ever experienced a real resurrection of the kind
described in I Corinthians 15, one where the body “is
sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown
in dishonor; it is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness;
it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised
a spiritual body.”
Jesus rose victorious over the grave with the keys of
hades and of death (Rev. 1:18). It was not for his own
benefit he conquered hades and death, but for us he did it
(Isa. 53:12). “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” “For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that
is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” “Thanks be
to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ” (I Cor. 15:50-57).
Aren’t you glad you’re a Christian? Jesus gave us
victory over death and hades! No wonder the scripture
says concerning the Christian’s death, “We sorrow not
as others which have no hope” (I Thess. 4:13). Let us
celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, for in it we have the
assurance of our own resurrection and eternal life.
Pastor David Jenkins
Christian Life Center
The Death & Resurrection
of Jesus Christ
The resurrection of Jesus is important for several
reasons.
First, it witnesses to the immense power of God
Himself. To believe in the resurrection is to believe in
God. If God exists, and if He created the universe and
has power over it, He has power to raise the dead. If He
does not have such power, He is not a God worthy of our
faith and worship. Only He who created life can resurrect
it after death, only He can reverse the hideousness that
is death itself, and only He can remove the sting that is
death and the victory that is the grave’s (1 Cor. 15:54-55).
In resurrecting Jesus from the grave, God reminds us of
His absolute sovereignty over life and death.
Second, the resurrection of Jesus is a testimony to the
resurrection of human beings, which is a basic tenet of
the Christian faith. Unlike all other religions, Christianity
alone possesses a founder who transcends death and who
promises that His followers will do the same. All other
religions were founded by men and prophets whose end
was the grave. As Christians, we take comfort in the fact
that our God became man, died for our sins, and was
resurrected the third day. The grave could not hold Him.
He lives, and He sits today at the right hand of God the
Father in heaven.
In 1 Cor. 15, Paul explains in detail the importance
of the resurrection of Christ. Some in Corinth did not
believe in the resurrection of the dead, and in this chapter
Paul gives six disastrous consequences if there were no
resurrection: 1) preaching Christ would be senseless (v.
14); 2) faith in Christ would be useless (v. 14); 3) all the
witnesses and preachers of the resurrection would be liars
(v. 15); 4) no one would be redeemed from sin (v. 17); 5)
all former believers would have perished (v.18); and 6)
Christians would be the most pitiable people on the earth
(v. 19). But Christ indeed has risen from the dead and “has
become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep”
(v. 20), assuring that we will follow Him in resurrection.
The inspired Word of God guarantees the believer’s
resurrection at the coming of Jesus Christ for His Body
(the Church) at the Rapture. Such hope and assurance
results in a great song of triumph as Paul writes in 1 Cor.
15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death,
is your sting?”
The resurrection is the triumphant and glorious vic-
tory for every believer. Jesus Christ died, was buried, and
rose the third day according to the Scripture. And, He is
coming again! The dead in Christ will be raised up, and
those who remain and are alive at His coming will be
changed and receive new, glorified bodies (1 Thes. 4:13-
18). Why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ important
to salvation? It demonstrated that God accepted Jesus’
sacrifice on our behalf. It proves that God has the power
to raise us from the dead. It guarantees that those who
believe in Christ will not remain dead, but will be resur-
rected unto eternal life. That is our blessed hope!
So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us live in
the joy of Easter with all our friends in Christ and make
our special efforts to reach out to those who don’t know
about Christ, so they may know Jesus and manifest their
joy outwardly as we are doing today. We shall live in
faith in Jesus Christ that
He is truly risen from
the dead and bring joy
to the whole world. The
Lord is Risen! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Wi s h i n g y o u a
Blessed and Joyful Eas-
ter.
Rev. Fr. Papa Rao
Pasala
St. Patrick’s and
St. William’s Catholic
churches