Celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord

In the Christian Church year, Easter is far more than a single day of observance.  Similar to the Christmas season, the Season of Easter is actually a seven-week period of the Church year called Eastertide.  This fifty day period, called Pentecost in some traditions, begins at sundown the evening before Easter Sunday (the Easter Vigil) and lasts for six more weeks until Pentecost Sunday.  This year’s Eastertide begins the evening of April 19, ending on June 8.

The Season of Easter is the high point of the Christian Church year.  It is a time of praise, as Christians glorify the risen Christ.  The scripture readings proclaim the power of the resurrection that gives strength in suffering, unity in diversity, consolation in sorrow, perseverance in adversity and faith in times of doubt.

Through his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus gifting for all who believe in Him eternal life in Christ Jesus.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17).

Christian’s lives are transformed by the Easter good news and receive the gift of new life.  It is a joyous occasion and something to really celebrate.  Our Lord, our master, our Jesus has claimed victory for us!  On this, the holiest day of the year and for the entire Season of Easter, many Christian's greet each other with the words, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!  Alleluia!”

“There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).  Whenever we gather together, representing the body of Christ, we pray for the Church in all of its diversity, comprising those disciples who carry Christ’s life in them.  Christ is in our strands of DNA, dwelling in us more deeply than what we can possible comprehend.  He has established through His Church His very own body on earth, complete with hands to serve, feet to go to the nations and a tongue to proclaim.

So I urge believers to go out and share the life-changing good news of the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Bring a friend or coworker to your Sunday worship service and fine-tune your ministry of hospitality.  O Lord, so stir up in your Church, indeed in each of us, that Spirit of adoption and reconciliation that is made possible by your grace.

The congregation is like a river and we flow wherever God desires.  “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).  We glorify God in our bodies and in everything that we set forth to do.  May God give us the faith and determination to live the dream that is His Kingdom.

Holy Week - April 13 - April 19, 2014
Palm/Passion Sunday: April 13
Maundy Thursday: April 17
Good Friday: April 18
Holy Saturday: April 19*

*By the second century, Christians established a particular day for the celebration of the resurrection, which was connected to the Jewish Passover.  Their observance began at sundown on Saturday evening. They called it the Night of the Great Vigil, a time of remembrance and expectation that lasted throughout the night so they could sing "alleluia" at dawn on Easter morning.  It was during the Night of the Great Vigil that new Christians were received into the Church.

The Season of Easter - April 20 – June 8, 2014
Easter Sunday: April 20
Ascension Day: May 29
Pentecost: June 8

In Christian theology, the events from the Last Supper until the death and resurrection of Jesus are referred to as The Passion.

See 2011 Purcellville Passion Play photographs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey9qriWbtok

Mark Gunderman attends Community Lutheran Church in Sterling.

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