Sermon 04-22-12 :: Forget the Church...Follow Jesus

For many people, Easter is one holiday among many, associated with bunnies, eggs, and even a trip to church.  But for God’s people, Easter is a new way of life.  The empty tomb creates a new people with a new set of values, concerns, habits, and hopes…all of which are in a sense countercultural in that they go against the our ingrained cultural values, concerns, habits, and hopes.  Whether it’s the transition from individual freedom to the accountability of a community, or flakiness to faithfulness, the process can be messy.  But it’s in this messy tension between old and new that we learn what it means to be Easter people.

"Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a perople who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God."  - Stanley Hauerwas 

New sermon posted at reliantchurch.org