Easter Isn’t Over

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It’s the week after Easter as I write this and our house still contains the Easter “leftovers.” The bunny Teddy made when he was four is still up. The miniature garden tomb we make every year still has the linen cloth inside. Plastic eggs are here and there. Our refrigerator contains hard boiled eggs whose dye jobs are becoming decidedly less beautiful by the day.

And the candy. Oh, the candy.

Easter is still lingering. As well it should because for Christians, Easter is not a single day, it is a season. The Great Fifty Days. And it makes sense, doesn’t it? Because who can possibly make sense of the resurrection in just one morning?

The early church called this season mystagogia, a Greek word that means “lead into the mystery.” Sounds just about right to me!

The Season of Easter begins with Easter Sunday (April 5) and the story of the empty tomb and the angel’s message to “go and tell!” and then continue to Pentecost (May 24), the day the Holy Spirit transformed the disciples and gave them what they needed to share the good news.

On the Sundays in between these two High Holy Days, our scripture readings from Acts and Romans show the evolution of the disciples, moving from fear and doubt to hope and confidence. They also show some of the ways in which the earliest followers lived into—and struggled with!—this new and changed reality.

Following Jesus isn’t easy. Trusting in God’s promise that “Love Wins” takes time and effort as we unlearn the world’s ways of jealousy, fear, expediency, “might makes right” and safety in numbers.

And so we find courage and hope in the stories of those earliest followers and the companionship of one another. I hope you’ll join us for worship this Easter Season as we grow ever deeper in faith, hope, understanding and love.

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Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death.
Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.

~from “The Sparrow” by Ivan Turgenev

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“Easter Eggs!” – Photo by moonlightbulb