(NOTE: Dr. J. Ellsworth Kalas, longtime pastor,
author, and teacher, passed away yesterday. He was an inspiration to many. He
lived and died with A FULL AND SURE HOPE of eternal life through Christ Jesus.)
Here's
the good news about Easter. The tomb was
now full. And it has been full ever
since.
[Full
of] victory, for instance. One of
Charles Wesley's great hymns challenges the domain of the tomb by a series of
questions: "Where, O death, is now thy sting?... Where's thy victory,
boasting grave?" ("Christ the
Lord Is Risen Today?") Tombs have
for so long declared themselves the ultimate winners; after all, no mortal
escapes them! But no longer. We do indeed die, but with a sublime
confidence that we will rise again. We
will win! Our Lord has taken conquest of
the grave, turning its emptiness into a habitation of victory. The game we humans have been losing since
Adam and Eve is now turned into victory.
And hope too. The
tomb is now full of hope. During my
nearly forty years as a parish pastor, I stood many hundreds of times at the
open grave, speaking the words of committal, and knowing that as soon as our
gathering left the cemetery, workers would lower the vault into the ground and
would begin to throw dirt upon it. But I
conducted such "final rites" with hope. As a fellow human being, I wanted often to weep
with the mourners, and sometimes I did; I felt for their loss, particularly in
those instances where death seemed to have come earlier than was its
right. But my tears were of sympathy,
not of despair. The tomb is now full of
hope. I remember my father pausing for
the last time at the casket of my mother and saying quietly, "I'll see you
in the morning, Mother," and I knew he was right. Such is our hope. Simple, yes; but full and sure.
-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in New Testament Stories from
the Back Side
#3766
Thank you for the post. For more on Charles Wesley, I would like to invite you to the website for the book series, The Asbury Triptych Series. The trilogy based on the life of Francis Asbury, the young protégé of John Wesley and George Whitefield, opens with the book, Black Country. The opening novel in this three-book series details the amazing movement of Wesley and Whitefield in England and Ireland. The book also richly brings to life the life-changing effect on a Great Britain sadly in need of deliverance from addiction to gin and illiteracy. Black Country also details the Wesleyan movement's effect on the future leader of Christianity in the American colonies, Francis Asbury. The website for the book series is www.francisasburytriptych.com. Again, thank you, for the post.
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