Episode 1635: A New Start

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,635 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Tanya Gioia: I am Tanya Gioia, and I challenge you to invest yourself in others and develop your influence and impact in the world by using your time, talent, and treasures in living out your calling, having the ability to recover, as I well know.

Have a loving addiction. Free life is key. One way to be inspired to do that is to listen. Listen carefully to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer

Scott Maderer: of a loved one. Or the tears that go down our cheeks, enjoy. See it in every single moment of every single day [00:01:00] and embrace it. Embrace that Easter reality because he has risen indeed.

Tanya Gioia: Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Scott Maderer: If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be.

Then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can

Tanya Gioia: impact the world.

Scott Maderer: In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Matthew Chapter 28 verses one through 10. I share what we often miss when we look for the big flashy signs and overlook the subtle gifts. I also share with you why the biggest gifts are grace and a community of love. [00:02:00] Matthew chapter 28 verses one through 10 says, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb and suddenly there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord.

Descending from heaven came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow for fear of him. The guard shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women. Do not be afraid for. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here for He has been raised. As he said. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him. This is my message for you. So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Suddenly Jesus met them and said, greetings, and they came to him, took hold of his [00:03:00] feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee. There. They will see me. I love looking at the different Easter morning stories and the different gospels.

There are some things that are in common. Everyone speaks of discovering the empty tome and each tells of the effect of this discovery on those who were there that morning. But there's also differences or subtle nuances about each of them. We really don't know why they're different. There could be a lot of different reasons.

Perhaps one of the tellers omitted some details, but the others carried those details forward. Or maybe one particular writer wanted to add some stuff to make a particular point clearer or to emphasize something. We don't always know why what was written, but what we can do [00:04:00] is lean into what does it mean and how does it speak to us today?

And there are some aspects of Matthew's story that are truly. Amazing. Matthew in many ways is sort of the Michael Bay kind of director with lots of explosions and sci-fi or maybe even Christopher Nolan. Lots of action. And CGI. I mean, in the Matthew version, there's earthquakes on Friday and then there's Sunday morning earthquakes and there's angels showing up, or at least an angel.

And this isn't a undercover angel or one that kind of subtly slips in. This one is bright, shining, drying attention, standing out. And blaring trumpets with strobe lights in a big line that says this is an angel. The figures shows up, tosses away the stone like it's a [00:05:00] pebble, and then strikes a pose on top of the rock.

'cause if waiting for a reporter to show up and take a photo, and even if you're wondering if it was enough of a dramatic. Matthew has the guards, you know, the big tough soldier types pass out from fear. Lots of special effects budget on this movie. Matthew isn't really into subtlety. He doesn't drop hints.

He doesn't want you to miss anything. And yet the truth is often as we read through these stories of Easter, we do. Miss things. We overlook things. For instance, we overlook the women. Here's these women. Then they don't pass out like the big tough soldier guys. They don't get the message and then run away with fear.

They run away [00:06:00] with fear and great joy and doesn't that sound human? Doesn't that sound right? It's unsettling, it's frightening, but it's also wonderful and leads to hope. Everyone seems to be missing something as they show up at the tomb, and the shiny angel is the one who points it out. You're in the wrong place, you've got the wrong attitude.

You're swimming with the wrong current or going with the wrong crowd. I mean, face it. This is the logical place to show up. This is the human place to show up. A man was crucified. A man was buried. Therefore, that man is dead. Was dead, is dead and will be dead. This is the end, the destination. That makes perfect sense.[00:07:00]

But then there's Easter. Why are you seeking the living? Among the dead. That's the question that was asked of the women who had come to the tomb. Why are you here? You're in the wrong place. You've made the wrong assumption. He's not here. He's there. And where's there home where you live? Right where you are, the place where you would least expect him to be.

You're missing what's right there in front of you, right under your noses because what's there is a new beginning, abundant, full life. It's there right in front of you. He didn't. Come just to offer it to us. He didn't come just to let us learn about it. He didn't come to beat us up or say, you have to do these [00:08:00] 17 things, or Here's the secret message.

He didn't come to drop a few subtle hints, but rather to say, here it is. Here is the gift. It's right here. I'm giving it to you. I'm giving you the gift of grace. I'm giving you the gift of community. I'm giving you the gift of love. I'm giving you the gift of serving and caring and taking care of each other.

Lifting up those that are least living in gratitude. Hope, grace. We make things hard. We want the can't miss it. Knock your sauce, socks off. Experience. We want the messenger to come down and hand us. Everything on a silver platter, but the truth is Jesus is saying, I have done that. I'm already here. I love you.

When you're not lovable. I give you a community that can love you when you're not [00:09:00] lovable. That is the powerful gift. Yeah, maybe that's what Jesus meant when he complained about those that were always seeking signs that were saying, show me something spectacular, Lord, and then I'll believe, come down from the cross and then I'll believe, do this, and then I'll believe he's saying, no.

Live differently. Be born anew. Start all over again and open your eyes to what there is to see. To see love and gifts of grace in that bright sun in the morning to see it in the smell of a flower, to see it in the touch of a loved one, or the tears that go down our cheeks in joy. See it in every single moment of every single day.

And embrace it. Embrace that Easter reality because he has risen [00:10:00] indeed. Thanks for listening.

Tanya Gioia: Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As

Scott Maderer: a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market.

That you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the [00:11:00] world.