Jesus rose from the dead and then what? He didn\u2019t move back to Jerusalem, rent a condo and return to carpentry and preaching. He departed yet again. The gospel writers say that he didn\u2019t just leave, but he ascended to heaven. Luke puts it this way:<\/p>\n
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.<\/em><\/p>\n And John\u2019s gospel says that the Risen Christ didn\u2019t just depart, rather he showed up and bequeathed to his friends the power of God\u2019s spirit:<\/p>\n \u2026he breathed on them and said to them, \u201cReceive the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n So for 2000 years, we humans have been fumbling around trying to embody the joy of his risen presence, seeking to let the Spirit flow through us. It isn\u2019t always easy or clear cut and we\u2019ve made plenty of mistakes. But the church is still Christ\u2019s body.<\/p>\n I think this is why I am so excited about the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony coming up a week from Sunday, on April 28. It’s so much more than a successful fundraising campaign, building renovation and mission project. In my mind, it’s your way of expressing that you have \u201creceived the Holy Spirit\u201d Jesus breathed on you and that with great joy you gather in God\u2019s temple.<\/p>\n As we tour the building, share chocolate-covered strawberries, eat ice cream bars, and honor those construction workers who made this all happen, I\u2019m going to be giddily saying a prayer of gratitude for the sacred privilege of watching God breathe on you. The HVAC\u00a0is awesome, the 2000 new plants are gorgeous, the children’s wing is secured, the sound system is state of the art, the welcome center is inviting and the social spaces are more hospitable. But what I celebrate goes beyond the tangible.<\/p>\n We set out 5 years ago with these goals: Congratulations church. The Spirit still rises up in you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jesus rose from the dead and then what? He didn\u2019t move back to Jerusalem, rent a condo and return to carpentry and preaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,61],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[5701,996,1071,1074,1504,1788,1429,587,7080,7759,355,1072,5258,1387,359,3672],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20514,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20513\/revisions\/20514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20513"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccckc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– to share the life changing love of God with the next generation
\n– to create a spiritual home where lives intersect and grace is present
\n– and to empower all to become God\u2019s good news.<\/p>\n