Resurrection Sunday 2009

Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone! He Is Risen! I hope all of you have had a wonderful Easter. I played piano at church once again, but I was almost late — rehearsal started at 8am for the music team, but I didn’t wake up until 7:40am. Oops. I didn’t get breakfast because I had to hurry, but at least there were plenty of goodies to eat in between services, since it was Easter morning.
It was a team effort to choose the songs for this week, and we played Glorious Day as a true prelude before the service, then the hymns Christ the Lord Is Risen Today (that was of course the first one we picked out!), Victory in Jesus (which had been requested by a couple people in the congregation in the last few weeks), and Christ Arose!. Before the sermon we also introduced the song Jesus Messiah to the congregation as special music, as we plan to add it to a regular set soon. Then after Pastor Keith’s sermon on Ephesians 2:1-10 we finished with In Christ Alone and Revelation Song. All very appropriate songs for Easter, if you ask me. 🙂
This afternoon Jenn hosted an Easter potluck dinner for Penn State Christian Grads. Around 15-20 of us crowded in, it was a great afternoon of fun and fellowship. So much good food, too! I contributed lefse, which most people there were not familiar with, not having grown up in the Upper Midwest. While I was happy to introduce people to the joy of lefse, I think I’ll pass on inflicting upon them the odiferous experience of lutefisk.
We stayed at Jenn’s for Bible study, and as has become PSCG tradition in the last 2-3 years here, we read aloud large portions of Scripture, consisting primarily of the Passion narratives in all four gospels, but bookended by some readings from the Old Testament that set the stage for Jesus’ death, and some New Testament readings that expound upon the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, roughly some 1,980 years ago. Here’s what we read:
Genesis 3
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Matthew 20:17-19
Matthew 21:1-11
Matthew 26-28
Mark 10:32-34
Mark 11:1-11
Mark 14-16
Luke 18:31-34
Luke 19:28-44
Luke 22-24
John 11:45-57
John 12-20
Acts 1:6-11
Acts 2:22-41
Romans 5:12-21
1 Corinthians 15:1-22
It took our group a little over two hours to read through all that. There really is a lot of value in hearing that much Scripture read aloud in one sitting, especially since the Bible was originally intended to be listened to (if nothing else than for the fact that very few people were literate during the time in which the Bible was written down). While each gospel account is different in some of the details that are recorded (especially John, who recorded many conversations that the others didn’t), they are in agreement over a far greater amount of details. It’s also really cool to see how much the Bible ties together what happened in the Old and New Testaments — for instance, Paul’s writings in Romans and 1 Corinthians above tie together Adam and Jesus, in that a lot of what Jesus did does not make sense (or at least makes quite a bit less sense) if Adam and his fall were not also just as historical.
I really enjoy this little tradition we’ve started here at PSCG on Resurrection Sunday, and I fully intend to continue it in future years.
He is Risen!