Sunday, April 16, 2017

"Friends are God's apology for relatives." - Hugh Kingsmill


Easter 2017 along the central Oregon coast was a gray day, I thought it interesting that yesterday was warm and sunny and today cooler, cloudy, and with periods of light rain.
What was the weather on that first Easter? Would God have decreed it be a perfect spring day to align with the spiritual significance of that date, or let it be cloudy and cool, more like winter than spring, because the focus was to be on the empty tomb, not external circumstances. (Sermon illustration)

How long did it take Peter to go from depression to exultation? He woke up that morning convinced he'd wasted the last three years following someone who was not the Messiah Peter believed him to be. He'd fallen victim to a cruel hoax, been the fool. Suddenly the women told him the tomb was empty and the angel had declared Jesus risen. He ran to see it for himself, outpaced by the younger and more athletic John. But while John stood outside peering in Peter, ever the impulsive personality, rushed right in to the open and empty tomb. Did he accept the reality of the resurrection at that point or suspect some theft and trickery? The Gospel says John followed Peter in, saw the grave clothes lying there and believed, but it doesn't say anything about Peter's reaction. Later that day Jesus appeared to the gathered disciples with the result that they believed. If Peter had doubts between his visit to the empty tomb and Christ's appearance to the disciples what went through his head in between. Did he wrestle with the two options? Did he come to believe through a process while John arrived at faith as quickly as he'd arrived at the tomb? (Sermon illustration)

And how long did it take the disciples to move from the fact of the resurrection to its implications for them individually and as a group? Certainly they began at, "He really is risen! This is amazing, unprecedented!" Eventually they got to, "This means that...." How long did that take? Hours? Days? Weeks? Did Christ have to guide them to the implications of his resurrection, both theological (sin's penalty paid) and practically (a new meaning for life and good news to be proclaimed)? Did some of the disciples make that journey faster than others? Did some grasp it more fully, more passionately than others? (Sermon illustration)

Total change of topic/tone:
I assume the govt. is capable of far more than we imagine. I've read that the military's GPS and satellite photo capabilities are scary precise with satellites able to read license plates and place them within feet of their location. I'm sure they have computer capabilities to match. So what are the chances that North Korea uses computers to launch a ballistic missile and that hackers deep inside the Pentagon messed with some coding that made the thing explode right after launch?
Imagine the smug chuckling in that room when their satellite imagery showed that fireball. "Take that, you porcine poseur."

Sally's driver side window won't go all the way to the top. It gets hung up about 3" short of fully closed. Yesterday I took off the window and door handles and the armrest, then the door card, and took a look inside. When you turn the window crank a big gear moves an arm forward and back, which in turn causes a scissor-like mechanism to open/close similar to the way a scissor jack works.
The arm has a hole that goes over a pin in the mechanism (called a window regulator) and those two are supposed to be secured with a clip. A very tiny clip that's missing. The opening in the door frame through which I have to insert a new clip is way too small and poorly positioned relative to that attachment point. So when I get the clip from NAPA tomorrow I'll spend too much time getting it installed, and probably drop it down inside the door at least once. I may just buy a half dozen of the little things (20 cents each?) rather than try to fish out those that I lose. But I'll have a working window when I'm done.

Because it's the third Sunday of the month Pam worked with the 2-year olds during the worship service. That meant I was in the worship service by myself, and when that happens I sit in the bleachers (we meet in a big H.S. gym). And when she works with the kids we need to be there early, so I was in the bleachers watching people come n for the Easter service. Some people had obviously dressed up and some were in the same kind of attire they'd wear on any other Sunday.

I don't normally pay a lot of attention to ladies fashion but I couldn't miss it this morning with the Easter dress-up dynamic.
Who decided it was a god look to cut out the shoulders of a blouse or sweater? What an odd fashion trend.
Also, women who don't regularly wear high heels quickly give themselves away when they try to climb into the bleachers.

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