Third Sunday of Easter 

Easter is here! Christ is risen! Death has been conquered! Woooooo. What a time to be alive. There is so much grace to be received, seen, and given, amen? Oh man. It’s wonderful to be able to see our liturgical calendar showing the words “Easter Season”. It’s such a joyful, hopeful, and promising time of the year and of our history that brings us back to the realization that we are here with reason and purpose. 

With that being said…ever feel like a York peppermint patty? No, like really, ever? York peppermint patties are one of my favorite kinds of chocolate. Yummy dark chocolate coat with delicious peppermint filling that just makes you feel like eating chocolate is good for your teeth. Haha, man it’s my favorite. It’s just the perfect balance of chocolate and mint. But, other than myself and the few rare people out there that know, the York peppermint patty isn’t very well known. It’s like this gem that keeps getting lost or left behind by all the other more dazzling appealing chocolates like Reese’s and Milky Way’s. Have you ever felt like that? Forgotten? Left behind by others around you that you feel like outshine who you are?

Listen my friend, let me share something with you. Just because you may feel forgotten, left behind, or outshined by others does NOT mean that is the truth about you. You still have those people in your life that know you and think you’re awesome. I’m sure that you have a friend, or family member that sees you and can’t imagine life without you. I know I feel that way about my York peppermint patties in my life. Now, if you just let yourself believe that lie. That lie that you’re forgotten or left behind, you’d miss out on the ones who see you and see their favorite person. Just like this York peppermint patty that I’m looking at right now, you are good just the way you are. In the form that you come in, the way that you enhance life around you. That’s all you. Just like this York peppermint patty, you didn’t ask or have a choice to be made in the way that you are. You just are. And although not everyone may see how amazing and fabulous you are, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who do, period.

In this weekend’s readings, God shares some beauty with us from the Gospel of Luke. It says, “He was known before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the final time for you…” (Luke 24:32). What? Did you read that right? Helloo, “…but revealed in the final time for you…” For you. For you! You, in your York-peppermint-pattiness, were the reason that our creator decided to reveal himself for the final time. Oooofff, come on now. What more can we ask for? Nothing right? Yet, Jesus still chose to die on the cross for us. Yet another way to say, “I love you,” “I choose you,” “You’re my favorite,” and soo much more. 

I challenge you this week, in your York-peppermint-pattiness, to see the beauty and necessity in you. YOU. I challenge you to do things for yourself and say things about yourself that are true and are good. If you walk by a mirror every morning as you get ready and usually look at it in disgust, I challenge you to look in that mirror and say to yourself “I’m a York peppermint patty, and I’m proud because Jesus chose to die for me.” God has created this whole world, our whole existence, so that we may know Him, love Him, and serve Him. Genuinely and authentically. It’s this promise of a life of harmony and never-ending praise. It’s a promise of life where York peppermint patties and Reese’s peanut butter cups live side by side, both shining in their own beautiful ways, encouraging each other. So, I leave you with this. I’m not telling you to change who you are, or stop being yourself. Be that York peppermint patty and know the ruler of the universe looks at you and is like “Yeah, I did that.”