Nebraska Synod ELCA

This week we journey from a parade with a donkey, to an upper room, to a garden, a cross and a tomb. We move through the events of a story we know well. It’s God’s story that is at the heart of who we are as God’s beloved people. It’s also the story that is central to our lives as disciples and stewards. Stewardship is all about story. So this week again we return to the core story that explains who we are, and whose we are. And for which we all are moved and invited to respond as stewards. As we move through this week, I invite you to take a breath. Amid the familiar of the story and the movement of the journey through Jerusalem, wonder anew what God might be up to and inviting. What might God be calling forth for you through this story of love this week?

This best story ever told does not end at the cross. We know this. We know that as the events move from Good Friday through the Easter Vigil to Easter Sunday, that the resurrection is real. We also know that the first responses to the resurrection were doubts, fears, and worries. That’s understandable. But let us remember that however we might receive that life-changing and life- saving news, Jesus meets us where we are at, just as he met the two on the road to Emmaus on Easter evening. He meets the two, and ultimately their eyes are opened and they respond. “They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’   That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together” (Luke 24:32-33, NRSVue).

How will we respond as stewards of God’s love today? Will we feel our hearts burning within us and hit the road with speed to go and share the good news? Will we be so filled with the good news that we can’t help but respond and join in with God’s on-going work of life and love today in some ways? That’s the stewardship question. God does the work of Easter for me and for you, which we could never do, earn, or deserve, ourselves. But we get to respond. Join in with your siblings in Christ as together we are one church that is better together. Part of the resurrected and living Body of Christ today. Thank you for joining in and responding in all the ways that you do as Christ’s hands and feet in the world. Holy Week blessings and an early Happy Easter to you and yours.