According to an ancient legend, if you could find a touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would be healed and restore life and vitality. You would recognize the touchstone from ordinary stones by its warmth. Ordinary stones would feel cold and empty, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand and you would feel your life being restored.
There once a man who sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of this elusive touchstone. He began immediately to walk along the shoreline picking up one stone after another in his diligent and intentional search for the touchstone. He was consumed with this dream. He wanted desperately to find this miraculous stone, find his youth, vitality and abundant life again. However, after several days had gone by, he suddenly realized that he was picking up the same stones again and again. So he devised a plan. Pick up a stone, if it's cold throw it into the Sea. This he did for weeks and months.
Then one morning, he went out to continue his routine search for the touchstone. He picked up a stone; it was cold, so he threw it into the Sea. He picked up another stone ... cold! He threw it into the Sea. He picked up another stone. It turned warm in his hands, BUT before he realized what he was doing ... he threw it into the Sea. Because of his habits, the routine of searching and lack of expecting anything different, his habits took over and what he wanted more than anything passed by and was lost forever.
When we come to Easter, each year remembering and reflecting on the story of God's love and Jesus' resurrection, Easter is our touchstone. It is what we've been searching for our whole lives. Yet when habit, ritual and routine dominate our lives, we can so easily throw the whole thing on the scrap heap of history and keep searching for who knows what. Easter becomes just another Sunday, and the touchstone just another rock.
When we come upon a miraculous moment in time, like Easter, something that will turn the rest of our lives around, we feel it turn warm in our hands, we see the beauty and feel connected to something greater. However, then either because of routine, habit or expectations (because we are numb, indifferent and from our routine) before we realize what we are doing ... we throw it all away. Absentminded, mechanically, nonchalantly, we toss it aside and the miss the miracle that God has sent our way. And we keep looking.
Since we have just finished celebrating Easter, maybe this year we strive not to throw away the joys of Easter. Instead, we are offered the opportunity to seize the moment and celebrate and embrace the incredible good news of Easter. This year we realize that Easter holds one of the greatest nuggets of God's truth ... namely the redemptive power of Easter. Easter showcases for us that God has the power to redeem. He can through the miracle of His grace, turn bad things into good things, broken things into new things, and make life better for each one of you.
In a symbolic way, we have made our way to the empty tomb with Mary that morning. We were seeking Jesus, seeking life and vitality. Some of us saw the stone rolled away and we left with an empty feeling inside ourselves. Others saw the stone rolled away and heard the good news that "HE is not here! HE has risen!". Upon hearing this, we begin to believe that God can turn our defeats into victories, our despair into hope, and death into life. God has the power to redeem.
Did you bring this discovery away this time from Easter? Or, will you throw it away and keep looking?
Sermon Audio Easter Touchstone 3.31.13 E
Easter Touchstone 3.31.13L
Sermon Notes Sermon Notes 03.31.13 EasterEmail Subscription:
