Dear Resurrection Family,
I am excited to share Easter with you this weekend! As I was preparing this morning, I kept thinking about and praying for the people who might have their lives transformed by the Easter message. I know that you all know someone who is going through a dark time, who needs to hear this message of hope. Please take a minute and send this brief video invitation to them. You can just copy and past the the text and image/link below, or send the link (https://vimeo.com/160459813) with your personal message.
May you be blessed as we celebrate the resurrection together!
Adam Hamilton
lease join me for Easter worship at my church this weekend. I know you will be blessed by the inspiring music and powerful message of hope. Here's a video invitation from my senior pastor.
Just click on the image to watch.
Easter Worship Times and Locations at cor.org/Easter
Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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Weekly eNote from Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States for Friday, 25 March 2016
Friday, March 25, 2016
Dear Resurrection Family,
Today we begin what historically has been called the Holy Triduum, or Easter Triduum (triduum is Latin for Three Days). These are the most important three days of the year for the world’s two billion Christians. Today is Good Friday, the day when Christ suffered and died. Tomorrow is Holy Saturday (more on what Jesus was up to between his death and his resurrection at the end of this note) and Sunday is Easter! These three days represent the apex of Christianity’s defining story – that God came to us in Jesus, he suffered and died, descended to the dead and rose from the grave, defeating hell and sin and death.
For those of you at the Leawood Campus, today we have our Good Friday Prayer Vigil. It is going on until 10 pm. Come to the Wesley Chapel – candles and the cross are set up. Devotions on the crucifixion are there for you to read. Come any time and stay as long as you like joining us in marking the suffering of Jesus and in praying for others. The Prayer Walk will be available until sunset – walk the stations of the cross – you’ll walk approximately the distance Jesus walked to Calvary – it is a beautiful day out today for the prayer walk. At 3 pm, the time Jesus died, there will be a brief Tenebrae service in the chapel, in the midst of the prayer vigil marking the death of Christ.
Our Easter services start tomorrow. Click here to see all the service times and locations. The music and the message will all be hope-filled and compelling, and your non-religious friends will find it speaks to them just as it will speak to you. Remember, the Sat. 5 pm and Sunday 9 and 11 in the sanctuary will be full and likely overflowing. Saturday, 7 pm; Sunday, 7 am and 5 pm are often only half full. If you come at 9 and 11 am and can attend in the student center or Wesley Chapel that would be great. Attend when you need to, but if you can help us make room for people who are non-religious and nominally religious, this could be the year when they meet Christ and see their lives changed, and that will have been possible because you made room for them.
By the way, congrats to KU fans as the Jayhawks make their way to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament! The game is at 7:49 pm Saturday, when many of you had planned to attend Easter – record the game, or join us Sunday night and wear your Jayhawks gear!
We’re still in need of volunteers to help with the Easter services. Click here to see where the needs are and to sign up to be a part of the excitement and fun on Easter by volunteering to serve! We’re in need of traffic volunteers. To sign up e-mail Craig Elford by clicking here, Craig Elford. We still need a couple of dozen ushers and greeters – if you can help, please click here. We’re also in need of 37 additional nursery and childcare volunteers. Please click here.
Would you be willing to deliver a coffee mug to a first time visitor this Sunday after church? We anticipate having a large number of first time visitors and we want to welcome them well. Stop by the Connection Point and you’ll see next to it, after each worship service, mugs arranged by zip code. Stop by and deliver the mug and a warm welcome to those in your zip code area by no later than Monday night. I love doing this and think many of you would too!
Next weekend is the Resurrection Men’s Retreat – Home! Lessons from the Prodigal Son Story. Men, join Rev. Jeff Kirby, Minister of Adult Discipleship and Men’s Ministry, Chris Folmsbee, Director of Discipleship Ministries, and Rev. Glen Shoup, Executive Pastor of Worship, for this unique retreat. It will be a time of spiritual encouragement, friendship, worship, and renewal. The dates are Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, at the Leawood Campus Student Center. The suggested donation is $30, dinner and breakfast are included. Please click here for more information and to register. You’ll be blessed by the fellowship, worship, and by these amazing teachers.
A reminder that the church offices will be closed on Monday as most of our staff are working overtime over the weekend to help with Easter worship and we want them to have a chance to rest.
I want to remind you that the Seven Days of Kindness are coming up beginning April 12, inviting you to make a ripple and change the world. The Seven Days began in response to the deaths of Terri LaManno and Resurrection members Reat Underwood and his grandfather, Dr. Bill Corporon on Palm Sunday of 2014. Click on the website to see special programs at Resurection and ways that you can share kindness during that week at home, school and work. The climax of the week is on Monday, April 18, when thousands will participate in the Seven Days Walk. Click here for more information about all of the Seven Days of Kindness activities throughout the community and to register for the walk enjoying great fellowship, exercise and a chance to join me and lots of others in witnessing to our desire to “overcome evil with good.”
This week Maggie, our beagle, died. She was an important part of our family for nearly 16 years and she appeared in a number of my sermons over the years. We were grateful for her. I mention this here as many of you have asked me about her over the last few weeks. I posted this on Facebook this last week and a picture we took of her last week at the lake. I was surprised by the number of response – they were very touching and they reminded me of how important our pets are to us – so many of you describing your pets. Last year one of you suggested a series of sermons on animals – what the Bible says about them, do they go to heaven, what lessons we learn about God and life from them. We’ve planned a two-part sermon series this summer that I’ll preach on this theme including a special “blessing of the animals” service following worship. We’ll invite you to send in pics of your pets, and we’ll have something special for the kids during the series as well. Thanks again for your kind notes on Facebook.
Finally, someone asked me this week what Jesus was up to after his death and before his resurrection. The most common first century Jewish understanding of what happened at death was that the soul of the deceased went to the underworld – to Sheol – the place of the dead (in Greek this place was called Hades). All the dead went there, but within Sheol there were thought to be two regions – Paradise where the righteous dead dwell awaiting the Final Judgment and Gehenna, a place of punishment where the unrighteous dead await the same final judgment. There are a host of different ideas and theories that swirled around these concepts. But you can see them in Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus where the rich man dies and is in a place of suffering, but he can see across a chasm to where Lazarus, the poor man, is being comforted in the bosom of Abraham. We see it too when Jesus says to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The Church has historically taught that Jesus died and descended to the realm of the dead just like anyone else does and that during that time he preached the good news to those who were in the realm of the dead. This is called the “harrowing of hell” (hell being the name often used in the past for the realm of the dead, encompassing both Paradise and Gehenna). I Peter 3:19-20 is often seen as referring to Christ’s proclaiming the good news to those in the realm of the dead.
We cannot know for sure what Christ was doing during those hours between his death and resurrection, but this is the traditional answer to the question. It raises a few more questions for me, but I love the picture of Christ descending to hades to offer hope and grace to the dead.
I can’t wait to see you on Easter!
Adam
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
---------------------
Weekly eNote from Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States for Friday, 25 March 2016
Friday, March 25, 2016
Dear Resurrection Family,
Today we begin what historically has been called the Holy Triduum, or Easter Triduum (triduum is Latin for Three Days). These are the most important three days of the year for the world’s two billion Christians. Today is Good Friday, the day when Christ suffered and died. Tomorrow is Holy Saturday (more on what Jesus was up to between his death and his resurrection at the end of this note) and Sunday is Easter! These three days represent the apex of Christianity’s defining story – that God came to us in Jesus, he suffered and died, descended to the dead and rose from the grave, defeating hell and sin and death.
For those of you at the Leawood Campus, today we have our Good Friday Prayer Vigil. It is going on until 10 pm. Come to the Wesley Chapel – candles and the cross are set up. Devotions on the crucifixion are there for you to read. Come any time and stay as long as you like joining us in marking the suffering of Jesus and in praying for others. The Prayer Walk will be available until sunset – walk the stations of the cross – you’ll walk approximately the distance Jesus walked to Calvary – it is a beautiful day out today for the prayer walk. At 3 pm, the time Jesus died, there will be a brief Tenebrae service in the chapel, in the midst of the prayer vigil marking the death of Christ.
Our Easter services start tomorrow. Click here to see all the service times and locations. The music and the message will all be hope-filled and compelling, and your non-religious friends will find it speaks to them just as it will speak to you. Remember, the Sat. 5 pm and Sunday 9 and 11 in the sanctuary will be full and likely overflowing. Saturday, 7 pm; Sunday, 7 am and 5 pm are often only half full. If you come at 9 and 11 am and can attend in the student center or Wesley Chapel that would be great. Attend when you need to, but if you can help us make room for people who are non-religious and nominally religious, this could be the year when they meet Christ and see their lives changed, and that will have been possible because you made room for them.
By the way, congrats to KU fans as the Jayhawks make their way to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament! The game is at 7:49 pm Saturday, when many of you had planned to attend Easter – record the game, or join us Sunday night and wear your Jayhawks gear!
We’re still in need of volunteers to help with the Easter services. Click here to see where the needs are and to sign up to be a part of the excitement and fun on Easter by volunteering to serve! We’re in need of traffic volunteers. To sign up e-mail Craig Elford by clicking here, Craig Elford. We still need a couple of dozen ushers and greeters – if you can help, please click here. We’re also in need of 37 additional nursery and childcare volunteers. Please click here.
Would you be willing to deliver a coffee mug to a first time visitor this Sunday after church? We anticipate having a large number of first time visitors and we want to welcome them well. Stop by the Connection Point and you’ll see next to it, after each worship service, mugs arranged by zip code. Stop by and deliver the mug and a warm welcome to those in your zip code area by no later than Monday night. I love doing this and think many of you would too!
Next weekend is the Resurrection Men’s Retreat – Home! Lessons from the Prodigal Son Story. Men, join Rev. Jeff Kirby, Minister of Adult Discipleship and Men’s Ministry, Chris Folmsbee, Director of Discipleship Ministries, and Rev. Glen Shoup, Executive Pastor of Worship, for this unique retreat. It will be a time of spiritual encouragement, friendship, worship, and renewal. The dates are Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, at the Leawood Campus Student Center. The suggested donation is $30, dinner and breakfast are included. Please click here for more information and to register. You’ll be blessed by the fellowship, worship, and by these amazing teachers.
A reminder that the church offices will be closed on Monday as most of our staff are working overtime over the weekend to help with Easter worship and we want them to have a chance to rest.
I want to remind you that the Seven Days of Kindness are coming up beginning April 12, inviting you to make a ripple and change the world. The Seven Days began in response to the deaths of Terri LaManno and Resurrection members Reat Underwood and his grandfather, Dr. Bill Corporon on Palm Sunday of 2014. Click on the website to see special programs at Resurection and ways that you can share kindness during that week at home, school and work. The climax of the week is on Monday, April 18, when thousands will participate in the Seven Days Walk. Click here for more information about all of the Seven Days of Kindness activities throughout the community and to register for the walk enjoying great fellowship, exercise and a chance to join me and lots of others in witnessing to our desire to “overcome evil with good.”
This week Maggie, our beagle, died. She was an important part of our family for nearly 16 years and she appeared in a number of my sermons over the years. We were grateful for her. I mention this here as many of you have asked me about her over the last few weeks. I posted this on Facebook this last week and a picture we took of her last week at the lake. I was surprised by the number of response – they were very touching and they reminded me of how important our pets are to us – so many of you describing your pets. Last year one of you suggested a series of sermons on animals – what the Bible says about them, do they go to heaven, what lessons we learn about God and life from them. We’ve planned a two-part sermon series this summer that I’ll preach on this theme including a special “blessing of the animals” service following worship. We’ll invite you to send in pics of your pets, and we’ll have something special for the kids during the series as well. Thanks again for your kind notes on Facebook.
Finally, someone asked me this week what Jesus was up to after his death and before his resurrection. The most common first century Jewish understanding of what happened at death was that the soul of the deceased went to the underworld – to Sheol – the place of the dead (in Greek this place was called Hades). All the dead went there, but within Sheol there were thought to be two regions – Paradise where the righteous dead dwell awaiting the Final Judgment and Gehenna, a place of punishment where the unrighteous dead await the same final judgment. There are a host of different ideas and theories that swirled around these concepts. But you can see them in Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus where the rich man dies and is in a place of suffering, but he can see across a chasm to where Lazarus, the poor man, is being comforted in the bosom of Abraham. We see it too when Jesus says to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The Church has historically taught that Jesus died and descended to the realm of the dead just like anyone else does and that during that time he preached the good news to those who were in the realm of the dead. This is called the “harrowing of hell” (hell being the name often used in the past for the realm of the dead, encompassing both Paradise and Gehenna). I Peter 3:19-20 is often seen as referring to Christ’s proclaiming the good news to those in the realm of the dead.
We cannot know for sure what Christ was doing during those hours between his death and resurrection, but this is the traditional answer to the question. It raises a few more questions for me, but I love the picture of Christ descending to hades to offer hope and grace to the dead.
I can’t wait to see you on Easter!
Adam
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
913.897.0120
913.897.0120
www.cor.org
---------------------"Reflections on Jesus’ Final Days" Reverend Adam Hamilton of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States
As this Lenten season concludes during Holy Week, I have been posting reflections on Jesus' final days leading up to and including his crucifixion. These blog posts are excerpts from my latest book, John: The Gospel of Light and Life:
---------------------"Reflections on Jesus’ Final Days" Reverend Adam Hamilton of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States
As this Lenten season concludes during Holy Week, I have been posting reflections on Jesus' final days leading up to and including his crucifixion. These blog posts are excerpts from my latest book, John: The Gospel of Light and Life:
- The Arrest and Trial of the King
- The Trials of Jesus
- Jesus' Crucifixion in the Gospel of John
- The Crucifixion of the King
The Gospel of John is the most deeply spiritual of the four gospels. This writing is filled with rich images and profound truths, but John notes that his aim in writing the gospel is that readers will not only believe in Jesus Christ, but that they "may have life in his name." This Lent, adults, youth, and children alike can experience a season of spiritual growth and life-changing renewal in Adam Hamilton's six-week, DVD-series, John: The Gospel of Light and Life. You'll follow the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus through the Gospel of John and understand the context of some of the best-known verses in the New Testament. Everything you need to lead small groups of all ages is available for this special study.
Click HERE to learn more---------------------
Click HERE to learn more---------------------
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