Baptismal Waters

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? --Ezekiel 18:23 (ESV) Hugh Hefner, the high priest of the sexual revolution and the founder of Playboy magazine, is dead at age 91. Reactions are varied. I can honestly say that I have not seen or heard any Christian come right out and openly gloat about Hef entering eternity, but there is no shortage of smug speculation in Christian circles concerning his eternal fate. Not surprisingly- and not without justification- atheists and the anti-religious take this of further evidence of the self-righteousness, judgementalism, and lack of compassion which supposedly characterize Christians and therefore Christianity. Once again, we seem literally hell-bent on confirming the world's impression that the Faith, and by extension Jesus, have an agenda one hundred eighty degrees the opposite of what it really is. Few people in the history...

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. -Mark 16:8 ESV What a strange text we have this morning! Here the Marys and Salome had gone to the tomb, mourning for a dead Lord, and expecting to complete the sad task of embalming Him. Instead, they found the stone at the tomb’s entrance rolled away, and an angel sitting next to it- with the incredible news that the One they mourned was alive! “Go!” the angel said. “Tell His disciples. Tell Peter. He is not here. He is risen!” So did they go and do as they had been told? No! They didn't tell anybody! It's not that they were overcome with joy that Jesus wasn’t dead anymore. Our text tells us that they didn't do what the angel told them to do because they were afraid.  Now, it's a very human thing to be afraid. We live in a universe over which we have far less control than we tell ourselves we have. Have you ever l...