Love Has the Last Word, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Everyday Peacemakers A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: John 20.1; John 20.16.
Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend. Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.
At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.
We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.
Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.
Featuring:
Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests
Love Has the Last Word, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Everyday Peacemakers A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: John 20.1; John 20.16.
Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend. Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.
At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.
We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.
Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.
Featuring:
Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests
Welcome, and thanks for joining our Easter celebration at First Presbyterian. You know, when faced with trying to describe a truth so profound, it's actually hard to comprehend. I find it's best to turn to the simple. So it's my tradition on Easter to turn to my favorite Easter book written by my favorite theologian, Dr. Seuss. It's called on beyond zero. And it begins like this, said Conrad Cornelius O'Donnell Odell, my very young friend who is learning to spell A's for AP is for bear C is for camel, H is for hair on to Z is for zebra. I know them all. Well, said Conrad Cornelia. So Donald L, from beginning to end from the start to the close. I mean, everyone knows z is as far as the alphabet goes. Then he almost fell flat on his face on the floor. When I picked up the chalk, and drew one letter bore a letter he'd never dreamed of before. In the places I go and the people I see I couldn't survive I stopped at z so on beyond zebra it's high time you are shown that maybe just maybe you don't know all there is to be known. On Easter we celebrate. We celebrate that the worst things in life are never the last thing that love will always have the last word just when we think z is as far as the alphabet goes. God picks up the chalk and draws one letter more a letter we've never dreamed of before. I am so glad you've joined us and I pray that we might open our hearts to the hope of one that have more for ourselves and for our world as we celebrate Easter Christ is risen Christ is risen indeed. God of resurrection and new life. On this Easter Sunday we are reminded of the power of your love, and the transformation it can bring to our lives. We are grateful for the promise of new beginnings. It we are also mindful of the pain and suffering that still exists in our world. Like Mary Magdalene, at the tomb, we to come with heavy hearts, burdened by the pain and suffering we witness in our world. But just as she encountered the risen Christ, may we to experience the reality of resurrection in our very lives, and in our communities. May the darkness of our despair be transformed by the light of your love shining forth in the most unexpected places. May we have the courage to confront the injustices of our world, and to work toward creating a more just and compassionate society. May we be open to the mystery of your presence in our lives? Recognizing that even in the midst of our doubts and questions, you are always with us, inviting us to a deeper relationship with you. Me the beauty and wonder of your creation. Remind us of your grace and mercy, inspiring us to care for all living beings with tenderness and compassion. In the spirit of resurrection, may we be transformed by your love, and May our lives be a witness to the transformative power of your love in the world. Amen. This past week was called Holy Week. But if we jump straight from Palm Sunday to the thread, the joy of Easter we miss how unholy the events around the last days of Jesus's life really were, you know in this world where we see the love of power always trying to flex its muscles. This past week we witnessed the humility of Jesus as he held the dirty tired, cracked feet of his disciples in his hands and tenderly washed them and said love one another like this. This past week, we remembered one of Jesus's own disciples, sold them out for a few pieces of silver betrayed Him with a kiss. They arrested Jesus because his way of justice and mercy and love was was a threat to the Empire. They accused Jesus of all sorts of things. But all he did was love and heal it and forgive. All he did was hanging around with outcasts and people who lived on the margins. All he did was tear down walls build bridges. Welcome everyone to eat with him at the table. Especially those the religious leaders said we're not welcome. All he did was give people hope. All he did was love in a way no one had ever seen before. This past Friday, we remembered how they beat him humiliated him stripped him naked. They rammed a crown of thorns on his head. And they laughed. Before he died, Jesus looked into the eyes of the ones who spit on him mocked him The ones who drove the nails into his hands and inexplicably said, bother. Forgive them. This man, Jesus, who many believed was the holy one the prophet spoke of so long ago, who they believe was the long awaited Messiah, the One who had saved them. This man was brutally executed. You know, there's nothing more evil than what happened on that so called Good Friday. His friends deserted him. Some so scared to even tonight knowing him. Only the women stayed and witness the one that they loved. Die. They saw their hopes and dreams of a different life a different world die and be sealed in a tomb with him. It was a gruesome week. That first Holy Week was a week of of intense grief. A week when violence and justice suffering death claim victory and broke the hearts and spirits of those who follow Jesus. It's so important on Easter to remember that part of the story. Because what we celebrate with an empty tomb on Easter is that it wasn't the end of the story. The Easter surprise is that injustice, suffering despair death do not have the last word God does. And the word God spoke and continues to speak is of a love that refuses to be defeated a love stronger than even death itself. Han Lamott wrote Easter isn't about proving anything, as if he can possibly explain the unexplainable. Easter is about choosing to believe and bet your life on this one thing. That love that love is stronger than any of the grim bleak crap like could throw at us. I was asked recently, if I really if I really believed in the resurrection. You know, instead of giving a theological response, I told a story. I told a story about a photo SCA saw in the New York Times about the project of reconciliation in Rwanda. It's been 30 years since the Hutus took up hate and weapons against their Tutsi neighbors, leading to a genocide that claimed over a million lives. You know, there's so much suffering and trauma, so much bitterness, and hate. You know, it's hard to imagine the cycle of revenge and retaliation could be broken, it was hard to imagine that a different future than the one of hate and violence was actually possible. It seemed impossible to think that a different story could be told. Just as today, it seems impossible to imagine peace and reconciliation in places like Gaza, and Ukraine, or even in our own deeply divided country. You know, maybe that's what hopelessness feels like. Trapped in the dark to reliving the same old story feeling the stone will never be rolled away. Nothing will ever change. In Rwanda. In spite of the deeply entrenched hate, and pain from that horrifying conflict, love insisted on having the last word. Love stirred in the imagination of leaders and peacemakers who were foolish enough to believe a different story than the one they were living was possible. They proposed a project of reconciliation and the projects creped the project courageously stated that those in prison for war crimes and genocide could be released, set free if their victims were willing to reconcile and the perpetrators were willing to confess their violence and both parties were willing to live a new life and somehow do it together? Can you imagine? Unthinkable? Impossible? How can you overcome he'll transform that depth of pain and trauma? I mean, surely there are instances that cannot be overcome. Surely there are instances instances where despair and death really do have the last word. The New York Times photo essay of this project of reconciliation is of is a perpetrators stay standing next to their victims. People who have miraculously moved to a place of forgiveness and love for their enemy. I mean, one photo and story that that shocked me. Is this one of an older woman next to a younger man. This woman became a mother to the young man who brutally killed her own children. Who does that? How is that kind of love, even possible? Here's what the woman said. She said, this unspeakable tragedy will always be part of my story. But I refuse to have it be my whole story or the end of my story. I refuse to let hate when she said I had to trust there's a goodness stronger than evil. A forgiveness stronger than my hate. A love that can do for me. What I can't do for myself. She said I had to believe there is something more beyond my pain and grief. This young man took my family away. And I need to love. So God gave me the freedom and the power to love him. It was hate in his heart that led to such evil. And that hate can only be healed with love. She said love has to have the last word. Wow. Just wow. You know that kind of love cannot be explained. Easter is not about trying to explain the unexplainable Easter. It's about being willing to bet our life on one thing. That there is a love, stronger than anything that life can throw at us. That even the very worst thing will never be the last thing. And I don't know about you. But I really need to believe that. I really need to believe that now these days more than ever. You know, if we have faith that love has the last word, we'll keep feeding the hungry. Even though the line of those who are hungry is longer today than it was yesterday. If we have faith that love is the last word. We'll keep praying and working for peace. Even when peace seems impossible. We'll keep fighting for a world where every life matters, even when, when hate seems to be shouting louder and louder every single day. If we have faith that love, that love really does have the last word. We can sit with our loved one who has Alzheimer's and doesn't even recognize who we are. Because we can trust that kind of suffering will not be the end of the story. If we have faith that love has last word i i can say to all of you who are going through hell. And I know so many of you are facing hard things impossible things I can say to you Don't stop. Keep going. Because the worst thing will never be the last thing. If we have faith that love has the last word we can say to those who are grief stricken. Death is not the end. That beyond this life. There is more life. If we have faith that love will always have the last word will keep showing up to do the work of love that is ours to do Even when we face large boulders that seem humanly impossible to be rolled away the Gospel of John begins the Easter story this way. On the first day of the week, while it was still dark Mary Magdalene, a dear friend and follower of Jesus makes her way to the to. While it is still dark, Mary doesn't enter Easter with joy and celebration, certain everything's going to work out. She arrives to the tomb with swollen red eyes from crying more tears than she's ever shed in her life. She goes to the tomb while it is still dark. That's so important. Because I know so many of you come to Easter this year. While it is still dark in the midst of your own pain and grief, there are so many places in our world where it is still dark. The Easter story begins with the words we know only too well. While it is still dark. But the story doesn't stop there. It says on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw the stone was rolled away. What if we had the courage to end the story right there. You know before we tried to explain the unexplainable before wonder calcifies into interpretation and then concretizes into dogma over which we would spend 1000s of years fighting. Before we turn the mystery of the resurrection, into a test about whether we believe the right things? What if we had the courage just to experience the event without needing to explain or prove the event. Or even be sure what it's all about? To simply stand at the mouth of the empty tomb with Mary in awe, and maybe a little fear, allowing just enough imagination and faith to trust that there is a love. Powerful enough to not only empty a tomb, but powerful enough to heal all the brokenness in our lives. And in this world. There is a love that refuses to die, no matter what the world throws against it. In the Easter story, man Mary only knows it's Jesus. When he calls her by name. Jesus said to her, Mary. And in that moment, she knows the worst thing will never be the last thing that love will always have the last word. What if this Easter we dared to believe and imagine that love is calling us by they not asking us to explain the unexplainable but inviting us to bet our life on one thing that love is stronger than any of the grim bleak crap life can throw at us stronger than even death itself. For today, all that's asked of us is to stand at the mouth of the empty tomb with Mary and just open our hearts to the possibility of such a love. Tomorrow we can join together and prove to this world that love will always have the last word May it be so Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. friends on this Easter may we bet our lives on one thing, love. Love is stronger than anything the world can throw against us. Go in the peace and the love of the risen Christ. And may the love that we bring to this world. bring hope and peace to others. Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed. Happy Easter. Friends thanks for joining us and I hope you enjoyed this Easter celebration. The mission of First Presbyterian is to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We exist to serve Jesus by serving others, being a presence of hope, healing and love when and where it is needed the most. Your generous gifts help us prove to those trapped in tombs of despair and hopelessness, that there is a love stronger than whatever it is they are facing. Your generous gifts help people believe a new story is possible for their lives. You can scan the QR code on your screen, you can give online at bender p.org or simply send a cheque. There are so many in this world who are feeling defeated. You know really believing that that z is as far as the alphabet goes. I invite you to imagine God has placed the chalk in your hand. And God is asking all of us with our generosity with our loves to write to write one letter more letter the world right now has never dreamed of before. May we prove with our lives that love will always have the last word. Happy Easter