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MEDITATION:

Written by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), an English writer, professor, and lay theologian. This is an excerpt from his book “Miracles.”

In the earliest days of Christianity an ‘apostle’ was first and foremost a man who claimed to be an eyewitness of the Resurrection. Only a few days after the Crucifixion when two candidates were nominated for the vacancy created by the treachery of Judas, their qualification was that they had known Jesus personally both before and after His death and could offer first-hand evidence of the Resurrection in addressing the outer world. A few days later Peter, preaching the first Christian sermon, makes the same claim—‘God raised Jesus, of which we all (we Christians) are witnesses’. In the first Letter to the Corinthians, Paul bases his claim to apostleship on the same ground—‘Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the Lord Jesus?’.  As this qualification suggests, to preach Christianity meant primarily to preach the Resurrection. . . The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences, were the ‘gospel’ or good news which the Christians brought: what we call the ‘gospels’, the narratives of Our Lord’s life and death, were composed later for the benefit of those who had already accepted the gospel. They were in no sense the basis of Christianity: they were written for those already converted. The miracle of the Resurrection, and the theology of that miracle, comes first: the biography comes later as a comment on it. . . The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection. If they had died without making anyone else believe this ‘gospel’ no gospels would ever have been written.

PRAYER:

Written by Michaela Youngson, a Methodist minister from London, a poet, and broadcaster.

Your love was too strong, too wide, too deep for death to hold. The sparks cast by your love dance and spread and burst forth with resurrection light. Gracious God, We praise you for the light of new life made possible through Jesus. We praise you for the light of new life that shone on the first witnesses of resurrection. We praise you for the light of new life that continues to shine in our hearts today. We pray that the Easter light of life, hope and joy, will live in us each day; and that we will be bearers of that light into the lives of others.    Amen.

MUSIC MEDITATION:

The Wonderful Cross: Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman. This worship song incorporates the hymn When I Survey the Wonderous Cross, written by Isaac Watts in the early 1700s, with modern lyrics.