1 Corinthians 15: 12-20 (links validated on 1/25/25a)

Imagine for a moment you were at your first Broadway play. You had never gone to the theater before. You took your seat and waited excitedly for the curtain to go up and the play to begin. As soon as the actors began performing on the stage, you were drawn into the story. You were mesmerized by what was taking place before you. After a period of time, the curtain came down. You saw people start to leave their seats and you did too. You assumed the performance was over. The play seemed to end abruptly but you thought that perhaps the author intended to leave the audience wanting more or maybe the playwright wanted those who had been watching the performance to complete the story for themselves. You went home without realizing that the play was actually not over. What you thought was the end was only the intermission. Act one was concluded but act two was yet to come. When it comes to human life, many people believe that it has only one act. Life ends when the curtain called death comes down. As Christians, we believe something follows...

Iona McLaughlin’s book, Triumph Over Tragedy, tells of her struggle to find purpose and meaning in life following the death of her daughter Jane and husband Pete and son Jack in an accident which also left her near death. The sequence of tragedy, as you can imagine, was overwhelming for her. Lying in her hospital room she wondered for what purpose she continued to live. She often wished for and prayed for death. But there were people in her life who would not let her give in. Though she was some 1500 miles from home, they flew to her side.The day came when she was able to leave the hospital. But what could she do? For 20 years she had been a wife and mother. Now her husband, her 14-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were gone. How do you so radically change from being wife and mother to being neither. She went back to school to retrain. But there, among the cynicism of college students and professors, her faith in God began to falter. Maybe they were right. The universe was without reason or plan. Her despair led to thoughts of suicide. There would be no need to struggle any longer. The anniversary of the deaths for first Jane and then Pete and Jack were difficult milestones. It was the sudden unexpected memories which would shatter her the most. A note left in a forgotten book. A person walking down the street with the same gate as Peter...

Exposition Notes