Synchronized with the Reverberations of Easter

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

 Hi, I'm Kyle Pipes pastor at Grace Community Church. So happy to be with you. Have you ever noticed how important it is to find a rhythm in life? I'm a big sports fan, and you'll hear athletes often talk about being in a good rhythm, feeling like they're in a good rhythm, whether it's baseball in which they will say they're just seeing the ball well hitting the ball well, making good contact.

They just feel like they're in a good rhythm. Or you watch a basketball game, some of you might notice that the N B A playoffs are on right now. And whichever team sort of finds the best rhythm is usually the one who wins the game. They just get into the flow. Of course, rhythm shows up as an important thing in the rest of our lives.

Music. It's a band who's able to stay in rhythm together that is the most dynamic and actually allows for the most innovation. In your day-to-day life for you, perhaps you're hoping for a good rhythm. When you feel like you're in a good rhythm with the kids, and work, and school ,and play, and some time to yourself.

All those things go together in such a way where you feel, you'll say, I feel like I have a good rhythm of life right now, and that makes a difference. So we're in the midst of celebrating Easter, and we've been talking about how Easter reverberates that there's reverberations of Easter because Easter isn't just an event that happened in history or a holiday to celebrate, but rather it's a revealing of who God is in a new reality.

Today at our church, we celebrated baptism and we talked about how baptism is a way to synchronize ourselves. To be in rhythm with the reverberations of Easter. And I think it's really helpful because it offers us three things. So Paul talks about how we have been united to Christ and his death and united to Christ in his resurrection of life.

And so that's true for us, and it does three things for us. It gives us meaning, it gives us hope, and it gives us a way to live our life. So the way Easter reverberates to offer us meaning is that what happens is in the resurrection, God reveals that love is the way. In Jesus life, death, and resurrection it tells us that love is the way and we're sent out to love the world. And so that's the rhythm we are to be in sync with. Likewise, it offers us hope. So we are offered hope because death is not the final word. All of us have the reality of death that lies out in front of us. None of us escape it. And sometimes that creeps in.

Often we try to hide it, put it in the closet, pretend like it doesn't exist, and yet it weighs on us. Hangs over us. But whether it be through baptism or the regular practice of church attendance or reading scripture or prayer, all of these things are helping us to synchronize ourselves with the rhythm of the reverberation of Easter because it helps us find hope because death is not the final word.

And so whatever loss or challenge we face, We believe that that's not it, but that God can be at work and can bring good even in the midst of a challenging situation. Finally, it offers us a new rhythm of life. So I've talked about this before, but I love how the three, four time signature, I think aligns with the Christian life.

So as you may or may not know, The top of the time sig signatures, how many beats are in a measure and the bottom is at what pace. And so I think three, four, which is common for a Waltz, represents the way of life for the Christian. 1, 2, 3. Next measure, 1, 2, 3, and that way is living, dying, and living again.

Living, dying and living again, and that'll apply to you for all of your life. No doubt. This past week, you had moments in which you lived. You also had moments in which you died. You experienced setbacks and pain and loss. But the reverberation of Easter is that we have the hope of the resurrection, and we're called to reflect that to the world.

So we don't give up at those moments we choose to live again. Believing that God will bring grace and mercy and newness of life even in the midst of the challenging situations. And so what we wanna be as a people, whether it through baptism or our attendance of church, or our daily prayer and reading and reflections, we wanna be a people that synchronize ourselves with the reverberation of Easter. Because what it offers us is we get to see the true reality. That the meaning of life is love, that death is not the final word, that we have the hope of the resurrection, and ultimately we're called to live this three, four time of living, dying, and living again. I hope that you're able to stay in sync with the reverberation of Easter, the power of the resurrection this week.

So great to be with you. See you soon.