Today, I greet you in the name of Jesus with “He is Risen!” And I pray you answer with “He is Risen Indeed!” It is Easter Sunday, the very height of the church year. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection as the event that so changed our world it split time into BC and AD.
We have walked the process of the Lenten season in the last 40 days. It was a time of self-examination and reflection. A cycle of fasting and perhaps practicing new spiritual disciplines six days a week and feasting on Sundays.
During Holy Week we considered all that Jesus went through from Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday. He entered the city to praise knowing that it would be short-lived. He flipped tables in the temple to pave the way for inclusivity in worship. He was anointed by Mary with costly oil and her tears. He debated with the so-called “religious authorities” in the Temple.
He served his disciples by washing their feet, knowing how they would scatter following his arrest. He ate the last supper with them and gave us the sacrament of communion. He prayed in agony in the garden only to find his disciples asleep. He was then betrayed, arrested, suffered a sham of a trial, beaten near death, mocked and marched to Golgotha and crucified.
All hope seemed lost. But God was working. Holy Saturday seemed dark. But God was working. Because God did what only He could do, we have Easter Sunday morning! Praise His Name!
But let us not be quick to forget the process. Let us not lapse in our spiritual disciplines. There are now another 40 days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. I encourage you to continue in deepening your walk with God. One way to do that is to pray with millions of other Nazarenes in the ….
https://usacanadaregion.org/pray
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Cindy