Astounded Us 04.19.2026

Maybe you are in a time of grief or confusion or pain today? Maybe you're just waiting for Christ to reveal himself to you. My prayer is that you will see, you will feel, you will remember as we gather at the table that when Christ breaks the bread, it's to remind us that there's never a moment where he is not with you, and may that give you the strength to carry on. And if you can't carry on, may you trust that Christ is still with you and let him carry you. [00:51:11] (80 seconds)  #ChristWithYouNow

Is it still we had hoped, or is God inviting you to a new story? Because even now, Christ is walking beside you. Even now, your heart may be stirring. Even now, the bread is being broken, and the story is not over. It is still being written in you, through you, for the sake of the world. Christ is risen. Christ is here, and Christ is sending us. And that is a story that still astounds us. [00:50:21] (49 seconds)  #StoryStillBeingWritten

I can't give you a reason why that happened other than negligence, other than living in a fallen world where people don't always make the best choices. And sometimes we're not paying close attention, and sometimes we do things that hurt other people. But I can tell you that in both of those instances, God was there. God was in that car. God was in that truck. God was in that hospital waiting room waiting on the doctor to come. God was there every step of the way. [00:42:48] (45 seconds)  #GodInEveryMoment

Christian worship is centered on the table of god's grace because this is where Christ promises even in the disciples deepest moments of despair that Christ would show up in the breaking of the bread. Trust that God is with you whatever you are facing at this point in your life. Look back on the earlier days of your life and think of all the blessings, all those if it had not been for the lord moments that touched you. And look forward to your future, trusting that the god who has accomplished our salvation in Jesus Christ is with you. [01:13:11] (55 seconds)  #TableOfGrace

There are moments in this life when the story you thought you were living suddenly doesn't make sense anymore. Maybe you've had one of those moments, maybe you've had several of those moments. You thought things would turn out one way, but they didn't. You thought God would show up in a certain way, but God seemed silent. And somewhere along the road, you find yourself saying what those disciples said, we had hoped. We had hoped for something different. We had hoped things would be better, and we had hoped that this would all make sense. [00:31:25] (47 seconds)  #WeHadHoped

Peter says, you have been born anew through the living and enduring word of God. You have been born anew, not just forgiven, not just reassured, but you are transformed. And this is where our faith moves beyond transaction into transformation. Easter is not just about what happened to Jesus. It's about what is happening day by day to us, in us, a new life, a new way of being human, a new capacity to love. [00:46:50] (43 seconds)  #TransformationNotTransaction

Now it is the lord has risen indeed, and we have seen him. They don't stay there. They get up and they go back. They go back to Jerusalem. They go back to community, back to the place they had left behind thinking they would never return. Because resurrection doesn't just comfort us, it sends us. It sends us into the world. And this is where first Peter that that we read this morning speaks so powerfully into this moment. [00:46:13] (37 seconds)  #SentByResurrection

Maybe your Emmaus moments weren't as difficult or as grief laden. Maybe they were. Maybe you felt lost, but you weren't. The disciples are in a fog of grief, and Jesus meets them right there just like he does every single time, but he doesn't leave them there. Luke tells us that beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interprets the scriptures to them. And that's very important because what Jesus does is not just explain what happened, he reframes their entire story. [00:43:32] (49 seconds)  #JesusReframesOurStory