Tonight at our weekly Fusion Worship Gathering at FUMC Student Ministries we end our lenten series on the movie Frozen. For the last couple of weeks we have been using Frozen as a guide to let go and rejoice in the Lord’s presence as we approach Easter.
It really has been a lot of fun for me and hopefully everyone to see the Lent season through a Disney movie. We have been using Frozen because the story that is told through this movie is one that we are very familiar with and one that God wants to redeem. All of the characters in Frozen in some way fear something. Elsa and Anna get most of the audience’s attention throughout the movie, but let’s not forget what Hans, Kristof, Sven, and even Olaf fears and ultimately through this movie if we look carefully and intentionally we see the depths of God’s love and grace.
When I first watched Frozen I was reminded of my hope for the students at FUMC Student Ministries, but also of the hope for all teenagers everywhere.
When I first came to Cleburne as the Director of Student Ministries there was about a month where all I could think about was that after everything that teenagers go through they are looking for hope, for something to give them hope. As I was thinking about this, I kept coming back to a thought.
That thought is best expressed in the hope that we have for our students at FUMC which is listed in our Mission Statement.
Our hope is that EVERY STUDENT would feel loved and accepted as Jesus loves and accepts all of us for who we are and where we are, but doesn’t leave us there.
I kept having that thought.
Total love and complete acceptance is what the cross is. That is why Jesus did what He did, because being apart from God is not acceptable to Him and will definitely not lead to an abundant life.
When Elsa confronts her fears and embraces love she unleashes the power of love on Arendale. When she does that the snow and ice thaw before everyone’s very eyes. I wonder if Sin is like ice and it freezes our hearts so much that we are separate from God . For many you may think that this visualization is helpful to understand the depths of what happened on the cross. I invite you to embrace this visualization and close your eyes and imagine the visual of sin being seen as ice and then in one moment in time that ice begins to melt and is lifted.
The world’s sins for all time are lifted from the world.
Then the scene begins to change drastically.
The sun comes out and shines brightly on fields of spring. See what I imagine when I think of this is a love that goes beyond anything we have ever thought of or imagine and furthermore I imagine a limitless field full of bluebonnets with the sun shining brightly upon it and all who are in this field feel the warmth of Christ’s embrace and love.
That’s what Easter is all about.
Amen.