First Baptist Church of White Plains
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Faith Community
    • Our Staff
    • Friends & Partners
    • Contact & Directions
  • Media
    • Publications
    • Photo Galleries
    • Facebook Page
  • Visit
    • Welcome to First Baptist
    • Recent Sermons
    • Weddings
    • Rentals
  • Ministries
    • Mustard SEEDS Collective
    • Food Co-op
    • David Manierre Scholarship Fund
  • Pastor's Blog

Pastor's Blog

Easter is When We All Get to "Come Forth" & "Appear"

3/26/2018

0 Comments

 
​We celebrate the Risen Christ this Easter! Please join us as we not only hear the familiar story of Jesus’ resurrection, but also hear a lesser known passage written in Isaiah to the devastated exiles who had lost their land, their king, and their Temple. The disciples and followers of Jesus felt heartbreak and despair on that Sunday morning, like the Hebrew people in bondage in Babylon. As Jesus shows himself to be alive once more, the passage in the 49th chapter of Isaiah speaks of a God who has answered them, who has helped them, who has kept them, and has given them as a covenant. God calls on them to courageously say: “to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Appear.’”

As we celebrate Jesus’ coming out of the tomb and appeared before the whole world demonstrating a power and love that the world  had not yet imagined, Isaiah’s usage of two little Hebrew verbs also suggest the cosmic purposes of God for his people. The two mandates are first to “come forth” and free the prisoners- free people from their fear, anxiety, despair, hunger, poverty, shame and guilt. Second, we are to announce to the invisible, those in the shadows, at the margins of our society, “Appear!”  The power of the resurrection and the life of Jesus is to authorize all persons, all exiles, all marginalized to be fully present and visible, to be fully reconciled to life in community.

So, as we celebrate the reality of Jesus’ coming forth out of the tomb and appearing to the world, we also understand our new role to utter and enact these two little verbs: come forth and appear, so that we might become the covenant that God is seeking in the dawning Kingdom of Heaven!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    About Tim

    I'm a follower of Christ, husband, father, friend, pastor, story teller, asker of questions, inspired by biblical narratives, social justice advocate, sports enthusiast, drinker of over priced coffee and general seeker of God's redemptive possibilities. Yeah, that about covers it. (If you discover something else, let me know!)

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    April 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    November 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

​First Baptist Church of White Plains
456 North Street
White Plains, NY 10605
​Phone: 914.949.5207
Fax: 914.949.5208
Email:
fbcwp@optimum.net
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Faith Community
    • Our Staff
    • Friends & Partners
    • Contact & Directions
  • Media
    • Publications
    • Photo Galleries
    • Facebook Page
  • Visit
    • Welcome to First Baptist
    • Recent Sermons
    • Weddings
    • Rentals
  • Ministries
    • Mustard SEEDS Collective
    • Food Co-op
    • David Manierre Scholarship Fund
  • Pastor's Blog