Mars Hill Update.

Easter is the season of HOPE. The message of Easter is that the way of being in Jesus, the way of living the new resurrected life is through participation. The original metaphors of the faith found in the New Testament and early church are old metaphors that need to be made new. The Easter Season (the time between Easter Sunday and Pentecost) is the time to recapture some of these old metaphors and make them new and fresh. The primary metaphor for the Easter season is the church as the resurrected people living a resurrected spirituality. Because of Easter we are in union with Christ.

Please mark your calendars and join over 80 churches for Sharefest ( www.ShareFestOKC.org) on Saturday, April 19th from 9-3pm. We will have several working teams to engage the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's with kind acts and practical help. We need all kinds of lawn and tree trimming equipment to tackle some of the projects we have planned. Please let me know if you are willing and able to contribute in this way.

This Sunday is the Third Sunday of Easter: Worship. Worship is the constant celebration of the Easter event. It is in worship that resurrection spirituality is learned and experienced. We gather - To hear the good news - To break bread together - To go forth and tell others. Inside this fourfold pattern is the content of the death and resurrection and the message of hope.

Our work in worship is to do the work of remembrance and hope. In worship we remember God's acts of salvation in history, especially God's work in the death and resurrection of Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sins and to be a victor over the powers of evil. Therefore in worship we anticipate his coming again, the total destruction of evil, and the reign of God's shalom (meaning: peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, and complete) over the entire created world.

So worship signifies God and God's mission to rescue creatures and creation. But note what this kind of worship does. It does something for those who do the work of proclaiming and enacting God's work. It transforms them. Every Sunday is a "little Easter," a celebration of the Easter event (Robert Webber).

I look forward to sharing and celebrating communion with you this Sunday, April 6th to be followed by dinner together.

Shalom.
Ben.