From the Pastors Desk

The Sure and Certain Hope of Easter

From the Pastors Desk - April 10, 2022

Oh, Superman, where are you now, when everything’s gone wrong somehow? The men of steel, the men of power, are losing control by the hour. Genesis- “Land of Confusion”

“Land of Confusion” was a song that was popular when I was in high school. The video for the song was very strange and very political. I was on speech team during that time and competed in the category of Foreign
Extemporaneous where we would speak on political events outside the U.S. The two major issues back then were the Iran Contra hearings and the Cold War which was quickly thawing out. I remember
writing about nuclear weapons and that neither country (U.S. and Soviet Union) would ever use them. The world leaders were smart enough to know that it would end in Mutually Assured Destruction
(MAD). Life seemed so innocent then.

Fast forward 34 years. An autocrat who has ruled over Russia two different times, for a total of 17 years, is now invading an innocent country with the hopes of recreating the Soviet Union. He has bombed many
civilian targets too numerous to mention and has even threatened the use of nuclear weapons. Seriously??!!! Didn’t anyone inform this man how those work?! To call Putin crazy and unhinged is an understatement!

Did I ever mention that insane world leaders make me quite nervous?

But then again, unhinged leaders are nothing new. Adolf Hitler began WWII by invading Poland. According to the National World War II Museum’s website “Upon achieving power, Hitler smashed the nation’s democratic
institutions and transformed Germany into a war state intent on conquering Europe for the benefit of the so-called Aryan race.” Unhinged ruler? No question! Many of you lived during the time of World War II. Some of you even served in the military during that time. Scary, scary times!

Even back to the time of Christ, Herod the Great loved power so much he had his wife killed out of jealousy and two sons put to death so they could not take over the throne. When he found out Jesus was born he felt so threatened that he ordered
the slaughter of the innocents.

Humanity, what do we do with it? Apparently God wondered the same thing. However, instead of being a deranged, unhinged ruler, God is a loving, kind ruler full of grace. Consider John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” On April 17^thwe will once again celebrate Christ’s victory over the grave and, therefore, our victory over the grave as well. St. Paul writes in Romans 8 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I couldn’t have said it better! No matter what happens in this wiggidy wack
world we will ALWAYS have the love of Christ!

Easter is a time of victory-victory over death and all the trouble humanity causes. The despotic rulers become pages in the history books, long to be forgotten. God’s rule reigns forever! Martin Luther once said “The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man’s reason. Unto him who is able to keep us from falling, and lift us from the dark to the bright mountain of hope, from the midnight of desperation to the daybreak of joy, to him be power and authority for ever and ever.” Amen!

Have a bright and blessed Easter!!! Salvation is ours! Hallelujah!!

Faithfully, Lei Fahrner