Lots of fun pics and videos below from Easter 2022 at Munger. Christ is Risen Indeed!
It was yesterday, during rehearsal, that it really hit me: I’m going to miss this place so much.
(I was wearing sunglasses, so no one could see I was crying.)
You know what got me? Just how much fun our band was having.
For example:
and this:
And then just all the joy this morning made me feel so grateful—my 12th Easter at Munger! First some fun videos I took from the stage, then some pics from the morning.
Easter began in the dark at 6:30 AM, by candlelight.
And then we closed the service in the light, out on the front steps.
The balloon company dropped off our balloon arches at 4:00 AM!
Lots of empty seats to fill….
And the only thing better than a full parking lot…
Is filling it TWICE!
Staff pic—man I love these folks. (Poor Rich was sick at home and couldn’t join us.)
Love our stage under the live oaks.
Does YOUR church have a pedal steel on Easter?!
Does YOUR church have llamas on Easter?!
He is risen indeed!
Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be a part of spreading the Good News in East Dallas these past 12 years. It’s been the great privilege of my life.
I recently re-watched the 2012 movie The Impossible, the true story of one family’s experience with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It stars Naomi Watts (who was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award), Ewan Macgregor, and a young Tom Holland.
It’s even better than I remember it and very moving. Highly recommended.
The reason I’m writing about The Impossible now is because I’m going to talk in my Easter Sunday sermon about the real-life experience on which the movie is based and I’d love for folks to watch the movie before coming to church Sunday. It’s currently streaming for free on Amazon Prime, and is of course also available through other streaming services as well.
Let me know if you get a chance to see it before Sunday.
Here’s an extended clip of the wave hitting the Thai resort where the family is spending the Christmas holidays. Warning: not for the faint of heart.
Beginning Ash Wednesday and ending Holy Saturday, Lent is the 40 day period leading up to Easter.
Here are 3 ways to get yourself ready for the raucous good news of Easter Sunday!
Fast
Before modern times, virtually all Christians spent time in fasting. Why not try it this Lent?
Give up a certain type of food for a certain period, e.g., skipping lunch on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Pray
Make regular prayer a Lenten habit.
Here’s how: Sit in the same place each time. Put your phone in another room. Focus your thoughts on the Lord. (I find a prayer rope helps me.)
And any Mungarians reading this should definitely take a shift in our Easter Prayer Vigil.
Worship
Attend Sunday worship every week—NO MATTER WHAT. Unless you are sick, don’t miss Sunday worship—and being out of town is not a reason to miss—other towns have churches, too.
If you are a Mungarian, attend Wednesday morning communion (7:30-8:00 AM). I lead it every week in the sanctuary.
Plan now and schedule your life around Holy Week services.
Easter is always good news, but when we prepare—when we remember that the Cross comes before the Crown—Easter becomes ELECTRIC.
This is our 5th year (!) of hosting Easter services in Garrett Park, across the street from Munger. Easter is the best day of the year, and I feel so blessed to have been there this morning. I snuck onstage during our 9 AM service and took the following video while we were singing "Because He Lives." I know you can hear me singing, but I don't care: it's EASTER, and I'm going to sing at the top of my lungs.
I could watch this a thousand times and it would never NOT make me happy. (I particularly love the part 36 seconds in where the band drops out and you can hear the congregation singing.)
"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow...."
Thank you, Jesus.
Happy Easter, everyone!
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I got an email at 12:45 AM Christmas morning from someone who was very angry with my Christmas Eve sermon. (You can watch that sermon here.) In my sermon, I wondered aloud if we are becoming a culture without mercy--once people have sinned, can they ever find redemption?
I cited the extreme example of Harvey Weinstein and asked if even he can receive mercy. The person who sent me the angry email felt that I was excusing Mr. Weinstein's many sins that have caused harm to so many people. It shouldn't have to be said, but let me say it anyway: but I do not excuse, condone, or approve of any of the things Mr. Weinstein is said to have done. In fact, the very reason I used him as an example is precisely because his sins seem so particularly ugly.
Which brings me back to the question I was asking: Can Harvey Weinstein receive mercy? Can he receive redemption?
Our actions have consequences, and justice requires that people face those consequences. I don't think mercy and consequences are mutually exclusive; Mr. Weinstein should be prosecuted for his crimes and if he is found guilty, he should be sentenced accordingly. And, there should be boundaries in place that make it very difficult for him to hurt anyone ever again.
But what happens after that? If he repents, can he be redeemed?
I've been asking that same question recently with regard to Lori Loughlin and the other celebrities caught up in the college admissions cheating scandal.
What they did was wrong and they need to face the consequences.
But what happens after that?
It strikes me that it's when people are guilty and ashamed and despised--that that is exactly the time when they need to be welcomed at church. I have no idea if Lori Loughlin and her family have a church family, but I'd guess that they don't. Is there any church near them who will reach out? If they were to show up at a church, would they be gawked at? Would folks pull out their phones and post pics to social media?
It strikes me that it's when people are guilty and ashamed and despised--that that is exactly the time when they need to be welcomed at church. I have no idea if Lori Loughlin and her family have a church family, but I'd guess that they don't. Is there any church near them who will reach out? If they were to show up at a church, would they be gawked at? Would folks pull out their phones and post pics to social media?
Most of us are able to hide our sins or explain them away. We maintain plausible deniability and pretend.
But sometimes there is no hiding. Sometimes we are totally exposed. Sometimes the whole world knows.
It shouldn't need to be said, but let me say it anyway:
Jesus died for sinners. Not the respectable sinners only, but also the shameful, wicked, public ones. Jesus died for Harvey Weinstein. Jesus died for Lori Loughlin.
Is there anyone around them who will tell them?
Is there a church family who can teach them?
Is there a place they can go on Easter Sunday to hear the Good News?
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I don't know of anything else in the history of the world's literature that is like the passion narratives in the Gospels. I've often wondered what it would be like to read that sorrowful story as an adult, without any prior knowledge of Jesus.Then again, what would it be like to read about the Resurrection, never having heard that news before?When those stories are read in church every spring, they are broken up--the Crucifixion on Good Friday, the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. This morning, however, I read them together, back to back, as one story.There's just nothing else like it.
"If you could put any message on a billboard that millions of people would see, what would it be?" Tim Ferriss asks this of his podcast guests, and it's got me thinking: What would I want to say?Any message worth putting up would have to be one that folks wouldn't get elsewhere--why else go to all the trouble to get the billboard if you're not saying something interesting?So, here are some ideas that I don't think you'd see anywhere else.
Anything Worth Having Comes With a Cost
I talked about this billboard option earlier today in my Sunday sermon. I've been racking my brain, and I can't think of a single contrary example. Even things that are free to me still cost other people. The reason this is an important message is that it reminds us that when we face difficulty in learning Spanish or getting in shape or becoming sober or raising kids or being married, we should persevere: that the cost should be expected, and it's worth it.
Human Nature Doesn't Change
We think we are so advanced: we have the iPhone and the jumbo jet and the electric toothbrush. And, when it comes to our technology, we?are advanced. But, technological advances don't change human nature: our biggest problem is within, and it has been forever. How do we best?use all this technology? That's where wisdom is required. People have been the same everywhere: we're just as jealous, petty, brave, murderous, kind, etc., as we ever were. Technology doesn't change human nature, which means we need to learn the?exact same lessons of our ancestors: how to forgive, how to face our fears, how to have a flourishing family. Those lessons take time. All the technological advances in the world are useless at best and dangerous at worst if we don't take the time to learn from what the people before us learned. (This is why, by the way, the liberal arts are more important than ever. Sure, I have an iPhone, but that won't help me have a great marriage. I can fly around the world, but what does it take to raise my kids well? Homer and Dostoevsky, et al, have something to teach us here.)
Progress Is An Illusion
Human nature doesn't change (see above). So, it seems to me that the more advanced we get, the more ways we find to kill each other. Now, I'm grateful for our advances in medical technology, for example--I can't imagine living in a time without modern dentistry--but life is still difficult, and sin has a way of ruining everything. Take the internet, for example--it's brought lots of good things, but it has also made pornography available to children--something that no society has ever had to deal with before. I believe that we should always be striving to improve and develop our civilization, but I also believe that there are no problem-free situations, and that everything this side of heaven comes with unintended consequences. (This is what Tolkien called "the long defeat.") Neither human nature nor the world in general is perfectible (this fact is why I'm not a progressive), and though it is possible to make advances in this or that area, Progress will always be out of reach.
Catch a Common Theme?
I believe suffering and difficulty are part of life and that human nature is not perfectible. If ever there were a people who needed to be reminded of those inconvenient truths, it is modern Americans. That might sound harsh, but I actually find those messages to be helpful! When things get hard for me, I shouldn't be surprised--it's just the way life works. But, if the three billboards above seem too negative, here's one more:
In the End, Everything Will Be Okay; If It's Not Okay, Then It's Not the End
