In this sermon, Bishop Stuart Rook discusses the importance of setting our minds on things above and allowing the resurrection of Jesus Christ to transform our thinking. He emphasizes the significance of our thoughts and the story that plays in our heads. Bishop Rook encourages listeners to train their thinking in light of the bodily resurrection and to set their minds on the things of heaven and the kingdom. He challenges negative thought patterns and invites individuals to imagine a different story, one that is filled with hope and faith in God's provision.

This is Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois. Today's sermon from our 2017 Easter sunrise service is by Bishop Stuart Ruck. I found it interesting that in the last hour of our vigil our beloved Margie Fawcett preached and she did a kind of extended meditation on the scriptures and also on the damaging of vocal cords. It's rare that I'm called out in a person's homily like that, and I'm thinking about how one day through my many opportunities I may seek revenge. It's a little family rivalry there. My youngest child is six. His name is Beckett and Beckett and I were spending a day together a few weekends ago. We were driving all over the western suburbs because that's what you do when you have children in the western suburbs. And out of the blue, it was quiet in the car of the blue, I heard him in the back, he kind of laughed, and then he went, sometimes I like to imagine you wrestling other people's dads. And I said, really? Like, what dads do you imagine me wrestling? I'm thinking maybe of Steve Williamson, Father Brett Kroll. He said, well, when we pass a car and I see a dad driving, I imagine you wrestling that dad, and I imagine you beating him, and I imagine you going like this. Ah! Wow. I mean, I'm always wondering what six-year-old boys are thinking. And they rarely give you a window into the story that's playing in their head. Scott gave a beautiful message at our Easter festival yesterday about the story that we're in. I'd like to develop that a little bit further and talk about the story that's in our heads. What story plays in your head? What do you imagine happening when you have free moment, free thought? I often teach on the importance of the body. I often teach how much matter matters. But Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, not only teaches on the way this body matters, but he teaches on the way this part of our body matters, that our gray matter matters. How do you think, and how has the resurrection, or how could the resurrection, transform your thinking? Paul says in Colossians 3, set your mind. He says it again in Romans. Set your mind. Develop, train your thinking. Train your thinking in light of the fact of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, set your mind on things above. Set your mind on that of heaven. Set your mind on the things of the kingdom. What story plays in your mind? Do you play the story, it's only a matter of time before the other shoe is going to drop? Yes, things are going well right now in my life. Yes, I actually got that job, but I'll probably be fired from it in six months. At some point, if you play that story in your mind, at some point the other shoe is going to drop. What's going well, it's not going to go well. Perhaps you play the story, I never ever have enough money. I never have enough financial resources. I can't get from the apartment into the house. I'm in the house, but I can't maintain it. I can't earn enough to save for retirement. I never ever seem to have enough money. And when you get a free moment, that story, that's the story that's playing. How about I have no margin story? You can chance to think, you can't even think because you have no margin. You have no space. The Bible would describe it as you have no Sabbath. You have an I have no Sabbath story that plays in your mind. Perhaps you have a, it goes so well for everyone else, but it doesn't go well for me. You actually find yourself complaining very often and feeling, if you're honest, pretty justified in your complaint because it seems to go so well for those around you and it never seems to go well for you. Perhaps it's the story just missing out. Everyone else seems to have great friends. I don't have great friends. Many seem to have purpose in their work. I don't have purpose in my work. I'm, I'm missing out. Life is happening around me, but not to me or with me. To that Paul would say to us as an application of the resurrection of Jesus, think resurrection. Do not let that story, those stories, or a story that you yourself could describe better than I can right now, that is an earthly story. It's a trapped story. It's a limited story. It's a story bereft of kingdom imagination. It's a story fueled by your own heart, your own sinful nature, your own feelings, your own thinking. Paul would say, set your mind on things above. Train your thinking that Jesus is raised from the dead. He takes something so cosmic and he shrinks it down into the reality of what happens in our cranium. He applies it that specifically. He applies it that concretely. He says, think resurrection. First and foremost, as you think resurrection, think thank you first. Think thank you first. Think thank you God. Because Jesus is resurrected from the dead, to think thank you first is a profound theological reality. Amen? That is not the power of positive thinking. That is the power of resurrection thinking. Amen? So we think thank you first. We say, I'll be grateful in all circumstances. For the Lord is raised from the dead. And there is always in that reality, amidst the challenges and the sufferings of our life, as I preached on Friday. Yet, we can always think thank you. Your soul will experience an incremental transformation. When you say with your mind, thank you. Thank you for him. Thank you for her. Thank you for that child. Thank you for that boss. Thank you for this apartment. Thank you for this house. Thank you for my limited resources. Second, think that the last word in everyone's life is always life. The last word in your life, as a follower of Jesus, is always life. Let's be clear. There is Good Friday. And the reality of micro deaths that we experience in profound disappointments, hopes and dreams that aren't materializing are very real. There are micro deaths. And indeed, the reality of a mortal death is profoundly real. And every one of us will face our mortality. Yet even then, in the micro death of disappointment, or the mortal death of leaving this life. So we think life always has the last word. Yes is always the word that overcomes every Good Friday, even Holy Saturday, quiet. Do you understand that because of the resurrection of Jesus, if you've been baptized in him, and you've been raised with him, that our Lord has transformed not only his death on the cross, but your death when that day comes. And death is no longer a peril to fear, but death is a passageway to freedom. In the name of the resurrected Jesus, do not think the fear of death. Think life. And yes, for the Christian is always the last word. Finally, think supernaturally. Think supernaturally. Set your mind on things above. For Christ has been raised. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks for listening. Our vision at Church of the Resurrection is to equip everyone for transformation. 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