How was your Easter? I hope it was a great day! If you were with us on Easter morning for either of our worship services, either physically or virtually, then you experienced the presence of God and the joy of celebration. The “Son has Risen” service featuring our youth, was a very powerful experience with music, a hands-on prayer project, and the energy of our youth helping to lead the service. Our Traditional service at 10 am was filled with music, celebration, and the energy of a full church. Both services focused on the triumphant hope of new life. Yes, it was a great morning!!
Of course, the main focus of Easter morning was celebrating our Risen Lord! The Lord is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!! But as I look back it wasn’t until Monday that the true meaning of Easter sunk in for me. So, now you are wondering what happened on Monday that out-shined Easter morning? Well, it’s not so much that anything out-shined the other…it’s a matter of the deeper message of Easter becoming real within one’s soul.
Remember Monday, the day after Easter, the church office was closed to allow our staff to catch their breath after a very full and busy Lent and Holy Week (Thank You Staff for your tireless work!!). So, on Monday morning I decided to tackle one of the projects that needed doing at our home. I decided to rake the front yard. This isn’t a job I really enjoy doing, but I could especially see that it needed to be done this year. There had been some pretty big piles of snow in our front yard, and where those piles of snow had been the grass was all brown and yucky (technical lawn term ☺) and it was all matted down. So, I got out the rake, and started in on the task.
As I said, the grass still seemed to be in the brown hibernation phase. However, as I raked I began to see something different…I began to see bits of green, meaning there was new growth coming. Especially in the places where the grass had been totally matted flat on the ground, as I raked and loosened it up, I could see there was a lot of new life. It was just waiting to be released from what was holding it back and holding it down. The more I raked, the more the symbolism of what I was seeing sunk into my heart bringing to light my own personal Easter message – a message that proclaimed, “In the midst of death there is life!”
Our world so often seems overly filled with death. From the news magazines and sites I read to the news programs I listen to; it often seems that death is the center of attention or very close at hand in so many stories. Plus, just from everything else going on globally, it seems there is so much despair and brokenness that permeates our world. I have heard people describe feeling as if a dark heavy cloud is holding our world and our society captive, even to the point of feeling like it sucks the life out of things.
But this is where Easter comes into our world in a powerful way. Part of the imagery of the bright colors of Easter is that it is overcoming the dreariness of winter. In the same way Jesus stepping out of the tomb alive, shakes up the dreariness, the darkness, and the despair of the world we live in. Yes, sometimes it takes work on our part (raking) to push back the deadness to see the hope and the power of new life that is present, but it is there just waiting to be discovered.
One of the great Easter passages in the Bible, I believe, is John 1:5. John uses the imagery of light to describe Jesus. The passage says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.” That is a great Easter message for our Day!! Don’t let the heaviness in life hold you down. Easter is about life coming forth from death. New life is possible!! Hope is always present because we are Easter People. Happy Easter Everyone. The Lord is risen! He is RISEN INDEED!!!
Pastor Keith