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Foreign.

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Thank you for engaging with
the homily by Pastor Chill Will from

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Chapel Hill.

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I hope this message encourages
you, challenges you and moves you

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to go deeper in your faith and
enrich how you love God and love

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your neighbor in your day to
day life.

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Just a reminder.

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Like the Scriptures and
Gospels themselves, this homily was

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written for a particular
community in a particular context,

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time in history and yet, like
our sacred texts, I hope that these

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words hold timeless truths
about God's unconditional love and

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grace.

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We hope these words speak to
you in a meaningful way.

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The Holy Gospel According to
Luke on the first day of the week,

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at early dawn, the women came
to the tomb taking their spices that

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they had prepared.

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They found the stone rolled
away from the tomb, but when they

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went in, they did not find the body.

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While they were perplexed
about this, suddenly two men in dazzling

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clothes stood beside them.

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The women were terrified and
bowed their heads to the ground.

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The men said to them, why do
you look for the living among the

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dead?

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He is not here risen.

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Remember how he told you while
he was still in Galilee that the

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Son of Man must be handed over
to sinners and be crucified and on

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the third day rise again.

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Then they remembered his words
and returning to the tomb, they told

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all this to the 11 and to all
the rest.

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Now it was Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, Mary, the mother of James

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and the other women with them
who told this to the apostles.

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But these words seemed to them
an idle tale and they did not believe

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them.

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But Peter got up and ran to
the tomb, stooping and looking in,

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he saw the linen clothes by themselves.

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Then he went home, amazed at
what had happened.

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The Gospel of the Lord may be
seated in the name of the Father

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and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.

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But these words seemed to them
an idol tale.

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That's the pull quote that is
haunting me this Easter.

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This morning, Easter 2025, our
Easter story comes to us from the

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Gospel of Luke.

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Each of our four gospels,
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John share

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the main plot of Easter.

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Jesus was crucified and
executed by the state and the religious

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establishment.

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He was placed in a stone cave
tomb with a big rock to seal it up.

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On the first day of the week,
after the Sabbath, a group of women

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went to the tomb to finish
burial traditions.

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When they got there, the big
stone was rolled away and Jesus wasn't

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there.

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They experienced divine
messengers sharing that Jesus had

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been raised from the dead, and
all four gospels agree that it was

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the women who went to the tomb
first and witnessed the resurrection

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first and they were the first
to go and share what they witnessed

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and experienced with the other disciples.

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And the world was never the same.

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However, in the telling of the
Easter story, each gospel uses their

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own poetic license to make
theological points about Jesus, his

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followers and the consequences
of this resurrection.

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In Matthew, only he shares
that there was an earthquake and

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that it was an angel that
rolled the stone away.

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And that angel's appearance
was like lightning.

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Matthew wants us to know this
is an earth shattering event.

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The very fabric of reality is
shaken to its core.

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Mark, like the rest of his
gospel, is a slimmed down version

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of the Easter story.

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Just the basics.

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But he only shares.

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He's the only one that shares that.

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The women ask out loud, who
will roll away this stone for us?

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Perhaps because they are so
amazed and afraid that the tomb was

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empty.

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He said nothing to anyone,
almost like Mark is challenging us

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to ask, if they didn't say
anything, then how is anyone here

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this morning?

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John the story we heard last
night of the Easter vigil is the

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most different from the other
three gospels.

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John shares a lot from a
certain point of view.

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John shares that it wasn't
just the first day of the week in

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early morning, but it was
still dark.

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John also shares that there
was this competitive weird foot race

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between Peter and another
disciple to see who could get to

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the tomb first.

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After Mary Magdalene shares
that the stone was removed from the

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entrance of the tomb.

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And it's only in John that
Mary mistakes the risen Jesus as

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a gardener.

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Beginning of creation story
starts with an image of a garden.

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Perhaps this emergence of a
new creation starts with a risen

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gardener.

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And now to Luke that we heard
read just a few moments ago.

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It's only in Luke that when
the women share the news that Jesus

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had been raised from the dead
that the apostles articulate out

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loud for us, they did not
believe them because these words

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seem to them an idle tale.

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I can relate.

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It's weird.

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Dead people don't just get up
and walk away now.

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I do love Easter.

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I love the traditions around Easter.

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I love this time of year with
flowers blooming new green on the

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trees and the ocean warming up
for summer.

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The temptation is that this
radical and idle tale of Easter can

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become too familiar, too routine.

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This day happens and then we
move on to the next thing.

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The world turns.

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And as it turns, as I see
those close to me wrestling with

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life and faith and the events
in my social media feed stirring

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up shock and awe, I wonder
what difference this idle tale makes.

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I confess that it is in this
time in history, in our present context,

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in this political season that
I've been challenged to re examine

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a lot of things, including
Jesus, his life, his death and his

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resurrection.

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And I confess that this re
examining has helped this Jesus story,

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the Easter story, become more
radical, more strange, more mysterious,

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challenging again the life of
Jesus, how he loved and what he taught.

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His passion and cross, the
beautiful and terrible coming together

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again.

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His resurrection, an idle tale
of a new reality, idle tale and a

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new reality hanging out
together in the same room.

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This Easter and this
reexamining, I am seeing anew the

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Christ.

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Not in the execution of power,
but in vulnerability.

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Not in religious security, but
in an abiding presence that is with

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the powerless.

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And with the least of these.

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I see in the cross of Christ
an exposing of oppressive systems.

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I see a revelation of God's
solidarity with those in the midst,

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in our midst, who still bear crosses.

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And it illumines a path
forward for those committed to following

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the way of Christ.

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I see a way forward in loving
up close.

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And in that loving up close, I
see a difference that Easter is making

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in those close to me and in
our community of faith.

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Over the course of the season
of Lent, our theme was from ashes

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to lament to new life.

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We confessed together our
mortality and our finitude.

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It was cathartic to be honest
with our laments, be honest with

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our heartbreaks, and to be
honest with our grief, knowing that

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that is a very biblical practice.

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And now we've reached the new
life part.

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Easter is here.

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I can smell it with the lilies.

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And I see anew what a
difference this story and witness

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can make in our community of
faith, week after week, Sunday after

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Sunday, as we are reminded
again and again and again at the

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font and at this table, that
death does not and will not have

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the final word in our lives in
our world.

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In re examining the Easter
story this go around in this season,

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I notice another word that is
used a few times this morning in

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Luke's gospel.

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Remember.

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Remember how he told you.

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Then they remembered his words.

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Notice that the dazzling men
didn't command them to do anything

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but to remember.

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There's no command to do
spiritual jumping jacks or to climb

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some ladder of enlightenment,
or to say some sinner's prayer, or

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even confess the Nicene Creed.

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In Luke's story, they didn't
even go.

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Tell them to go and tell this
good news to the other disciples,

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but remember his words and how
he shared with them that he was going

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to be turned over, be
crucified and on the third day.

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Rise again.

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Ah.

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Wow.

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They had an epiphany.

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Then they remembered.

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And it's then that they told
and shared.

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And the world was never the same.

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And even if it sounded like an
idle tale, Peter was still moved

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enough to get up and go see it
for himself.

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Isn't that what we do in this
community of faith at this table

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every Sunday?

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Do this in remembrance of me.

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At the moment, our world is
designed to shrink our attention

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span, to scroll from one thing
to the next, to move from one breaking

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news story to the next, to
forget and to move on to the next

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thing.

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And yet, on this Easter
Sunday, we are challenged to remember

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Jesus, to remember and
celebrate his resurrection, and to

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remind each other that love wins.

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And that's why we do community
and the journey of faith together.

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To remind each other that you
are loved, that love wins, that death

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will not have the final word.

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To go deeper and to be
challenged by this extravagant and

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prodigal love and grace of God.

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So as Jesus followers, let us
remember together.

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Jesus, who flipped tables of
injustice and also sat at tables

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with those society saw as less
than let us remember together.

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Jesus is teaching that the
first will be last and that the first,

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the last will be first.

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Let us remember together Jesus
subversive parables with weird and

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surprising plot twists.

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Let us remember together Jesus
in the garden, not wanting to be

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alone and asking his
disciples, including you and me,

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to stay awake with me.

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Let us remember the posture
Jesus took to wash feet and his open

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arms on the cross, praying
God, forgive them, for they know

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not what they do.

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And let us remind each other
that this stone has been rolled away

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and that this Easter story is
a living story that lives in us and

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within our community of faith.

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The good news isn't
necessarily that at Easter they lived

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happily ever after.

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Rather that love wins.

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This isn't a rescue or an
escape from the world, but a calling.

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Go deeper into it and there
are still love stories to tell.

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Even if we don't fully
understand it all, there are still

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love stories to tell.

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Even if we fully don't believe
it all.

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There are still love stories
to tell.

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Even if it sounds like an idle
tale, there's still love stories

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to tell.

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The stone is rolled away.

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New life is emerging around us.

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And so you have permission and
poetic license.

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Like Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, Mary Magdalene, Martin Luther

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and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and
Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King

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Jr.

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And Opal Snyder.

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And the person sitting next to
you share love stories remember Jesus

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to remind one another that
love wins regardless of where you

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are in your journey of faith.

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God is still going to use us
to share this love story in extravagant

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and diverse ways.

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That God calls us to the
resurrection isn't just what happened

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to Jesus also about what is
happening to all of creation, including

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you and me?

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So yeah, this idle hail isn't
going to go away.

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Let me Let me remind you that
neither will God's extravagance and

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prodigal love for you and your neighbor.

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Go away.

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Amen.

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Foreign thank you for listening.

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If there is anything that
stood out.

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For you, or if you have a
question or you just want to have

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a conversation, you are always
free to reach out and contact us.

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And remember you are not alone
and that you are loved with a love

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stronger than death.