2
Prior to attending small group tonight, read Mark 16:1-8, and come prepared to share your thoughts and insights. You might consider the following ideas together. The gospel of Mark ends without encountering the resurrected Jesus. Instead, the story ends with faithful women run away, trembling, astonished, mute and afraid. What kind of conversations do you think this dissatisfying ending produced when people read this document to one another? What kind of questions would a person who wasn’t a Christian yet have about this strange ending? The women went to the tomb expecting to find Jesus. Instead, they met a young man, pre- sumably an angel, who told them that Jesus was alive. They clearly hadn’t anticipated this, because they’d come to anoint Jesus’ dead body. How often have you been surprised by God doing more than you expected him to do? Reflect on how Peter behaved during the trial of Jesus. Is it important that the angel told the women to go and tell all the disciples, but specifically Peter, that he was going to meet them? How is it good news that Peter is specifically mentioned here? Selection Schedule for Appointment of Additional Elders Nominations close TODAY. Nomination forms are in the lobby. Those accepting and recommended by the current elders will be announced to the congregation. Congregation will be asked to submit any written Biblically based objections of any nominee not later than May 3 rd . Presentation and appointment of the new additional elders. Sunday, April 16th Sunday, April 23 rd Sunday, May 21 st Scrap Metal Drive Please donate any old items that you may have sit- ting around the house for the scrap metal drive. Money raised will sup- port the Honduras Mission Trip. Contact Bill McKelvey if you have items to donate. Movie Night, April 28th @7PM Movie: Me Before You Dinner at Haus Heidelberg @5:30PM. Ladies Retreat, Friday, June 2nd beginning at 7PM through Saturday afternoon, June 3rd. Regis- tration will be starting in a couple of weeks and the cost will be $40. The retreat will be held at the Marriott Fairfield Inn across the parking lot from J&S cafeteria across from the airport. 5th Sunday noon potluck, April 30th. Please plan to join us. Sunday night, April 23rd, bring your own bag supper. Desserts and drinks pro- vided. Service led by the McGee/Tribby/Learned Group. Sign up sheet for the Honduras FUNraiser Luncheon on May 7th is in the foyer. 1975 Haywood Rd Hendersonville, NC 28791 / 828 692-0306 / www.hvlcoc.org hvlcoc, hvlcocyouth hvlcocyouth [email protected] http://www.youtube.com/user/HVLCOC For the sake of his great love, he entered into the darkness. Many times, he chose to enter the dark in order to reclaim what was lost there. The first time was at his birth, when he entered the darkness of this broken universe. Since before time, he had stood at the center of sing- ing. For as long as there had been voices besides the voices of the triune God, and even when it was just the three of them, the music had been for him and from him and through him. In that brightness, he had not known pain or want, but only the endless joy of love. But he entered darkness for us when the light of the world took on flesh and bone. He entered poverty and was born ridiculously poor. He entered the challenges of family life with broken siblings and broken parents. He left the joy of angels for the sorrows of humanity and took it all upon himself. Rejection. Alienation. All of our mess. Because if he was going to come for us, then he had to come to us, and that meant entering the dark. He entered a greater darkness. This time, rather than welcoming him into life, he was being invited into death. For three hours while his life ebbed away, the world became a dark place. The sun wouldn’t shine on the death of its creator, so the sky became as night in the middle of the day. He entered this darkness to find us, because all of us have lived with this dreadful shadow cast over us. Death threatens us all, and takes us one by one. So he entered the dark so that he could be with us. He went even deeper still into darkness. When the stone was rolled against the opening and he was alone, not breathing, in the cave, he entered into the greatest darkness of all. Not the threat of death, but the experience of it. In a cave where no light entered at all, the light of the world entered into the greatest darkness, death itself, because that’s where he had to go to find us. He entered into darkness in order to lead us out of it. Such a short time after he went into the dark, the light broke free. His lips parted and he drew in breath again. His eyes opened and he stood up and began folding the clothes of the dead, strips of cloth that he would never use again. After the rumble of the earth, he walked past the unconscious guards and away from the grave and into life. He came into darkness, but he didn’t stay there. He entered into darkness to find us, to re- claim we who were lost, and to lead us out of darkness and into light. He came to where we were so that he might lead us to where he is. -Ethan Brown April 16, 2017
