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Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Welcome to Pillars Abide in Me podcast, a weekly opportunity to abide in Christ through weekly pillar sermon and worship reflections. I'm Christian.

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And I'm Trish. Hear these words from the book we love. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Riboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and she told them that he had said these things to her.

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But what are you looking for? Frederick Buchner puts it like this. But perhaps there are certain general answers that will do for us all. We search for a self to be. We search for other selves to love. We search for work to do. And since even when to one degree or another we find these things, we find also that there's still something crucial missing, which we have not found. We search for that unfound thing too, even though we do not know its name or where it is to be found, or even if it is to be found at all? What are you looking for? Take a minute to consider Jesus' question. What are you looking for? What are you about? What do you want? What wakes you up in the morning? And if you had it, when you get it, will it provide for you what you're hoping? What are you looking for? Once I'm in the committed relationship, then my ache will dissipate. Once I get the job, then I'll settle into satisfied. Once I finish this project, then I won't be so uptight. Once this changes or that shifts, once I lose this or gain that, once I, once I, what are you looking for? The testimony of history is that it never satisfies. What are you looking for? What are you looking for is only ever realized in Jesus Christ, not to the exclusion of your wants and desires and passions and hopes, but because in him all of them find their place. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

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For our part as a pillar community, we'd love to be praying for you. So feel free to reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com, and if you're willing, receive this blessing. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priest serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.