Ridgell's Originals

I love Easter.  Of course, that may be because I am a big fan of the resurrection.  Love the opportunity for people to invite friends and neighbors to worship.  After all, it is the one time of year that many people entertain the notion of going to church.  Lots of visitors will come to church on Easter.

So it is a great opportunity to proclaim the Risen Savior.  And I will be speaking this Sunday.  Not preaching but doing our Communion thought.  And I will talk about resurrection.  I will encourage us to live a resurrected life for a risen Savior.  I will encourage visitors to engage in conversation with us.

I will pray for visitors who want to know more about Jesus.  I will be looking for visitors, asking them to come back, seeing if they would like to know more.

We hope to have visitors from our Eggstravaganza on Saturday.  We are hoping for lots of neighborhood visitors.

Our faithful members will think about the Resurrection like they do every Sunday.  Actually, every day I would hope.  And I so want them to be involved in inviting, welcoming, and sharing with visitors.

But there is one group I really wish I could preach to but probably will not.

The Christians who don't get it.  That's who I wish I could really talk to.  The ones who don't think about Jesus any more.  The ones who show up for their one assembly of the year.  The ones who think they are OK.

But they aren't.

I wish I could say how they are missing the point.  I want to share with them how they are not OK.  I want to say quit being offended because we thought you were a visitor.  I want to say Christianity is so much more than membership.  That baptism is not just some step they took to get saved.  It was a death and a resurrection into new life.  The life they quit living somewhere along the way.

I want to tell them to wake up, return to their first love, and start fighting Satan.

But that would offend some.  Some of our faithful members would feel the need to apologize to the visitors.  And we would run the risk that they wouldn't come back again next year.

And I still wish I had the guts to preach that Easter sermon.  But it is two different audiences.  And I would rather speak hope into the non-believing visitors.

But I hope they don't get confused by the Christians who don't get it.

Jesus was not raised for one day.  He was raised to bring new life every day.  Now and forever.