That Glorious Day
September 23, 2026
Leadership Notes
What’s with all the goose poop in the church parking lot? What a greeting Sunday morning. The little ponds created by steady falling rain were bad enough. But add to that the pellets of soggy goose droppings and you had quite a minefield to navigate coming in from the parking lot. What was up with that?
Seriously…we’ve never had this problem before. What has happened? What’s to blame? Global Warming? Sign of the coming AI apocalypse? Revenge for Trump’s tariffs on America’s Attic {Canada}? Hopefully, their move south will commence posthaste, and we can clean their remnants from the lot.
In spite of the rain and goose poop, Sunday was a beautiful day. As we are winding up our journey through Luke’s gospel, I am looking forward to the next series on Colossians and Philemon. We’ll pause that exploration for the Advent season {92 days till Christmas}.
Until then, part of me doesn’t want this series on Luke to end. Especially these final verses. There was so much depth and beauty in Sunday’s passage. Luke 23:50-24:12. These verses dig into the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. There are so many layers of meaning surrounding that glorious day. Primarily, there’s the affirmation that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s sign that Jesus’ death on the cross was the acceptable sacrifice for our sin. Without that, there would be no reconciliation between us and God. Without the cross, there would be no eternity in heaven. Without the resurrection, the cross would be just another meaningless death. That’s the promise in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
Here’s how Paul captured it in 1 Corinthians 15:12-14:
“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can
some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if
there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been
raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in
vain and your faith is in vain.”
As I mentioned, there are lots of kooky churches and pastors out there. I read this morning about a mainline Protestant church in Canada that kicked-off a sermon series based on episodes of “The Simpsons.” Absolute absurdity. That’s clowns entertaining goats.
Worse than that are pastors who are, as the Bible warns us, wolves in sheep’s clothing. Some have called them impastors. About right. One such man is pastor of the PC{USA} church that a political candidate in Texas attends. He preached during his easter sermon that Jesus NEVER rose bodily from the dead. He stated that he does not believe in a literal resurrection. At least he’s honest about his apostasy. I’ve known pastors who held similar such beliefs but did not disclose them to their flock. What are you even doing in a church if you do not affirm this essential belief? Weird.
I love how Charles Spurgeon captured the essential implication of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus:
With Much Love and Affection,
Richard
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