Yesterday, we looked at the emotions surrounding the Easter accounts in the Gospel of Luke. There were some pretty strong ones flying around: grief/sadness, fright/terror, wondering/pondering the events, disbelief, doubt, amazement, AND joy…GREAT joy.
And yet a day out of the sermon, I'm thinking the emotion that is foundational to Easter is love.
When I say ‘love’, I mean ‘love’ as in God’s great love for us…I mean Jesus’ great love for us…AND I mean our love for Jesus. At 9:00 a.m. worship we sing:
“There is name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth;
it sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth…
It tells of one whose loving heart can feel my deepest woe;
who in each sorrow bears a part that none can bear below.
O how I love Jesus O how I love Jesus,
O how I love Jesus, because he first loved me!”
--Frederick Whitfield, 1855
At 11:00 a.m. worship, we sing these words from the pen of Tim Hughes:
“Wonderful, so wonderful Is Your unfailing love
Your cross has spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
No heart could fully know
How glorious, how beautiful you are!
Beautiful One I love You
Beautiful One I adore
Beautiful One my soul must sing…”
May our love for Jesus continue to grow and deepen…
