Celebrating Easter Every Day

We all know that Easter is the most important holiday for Christians. It is the resurrection of our Lord and without it, our faith means nothing and is futile as Paul says in 1 Corinthians. Like Christmas, we ought to celebrate it all year round because it is such a beautiful and powerful thing but we have specific days set aside because we need help remembering. This year, I got to be a part of the Church of the Resurrection's (known as "Church of the Rez" or just "Rez") Holy Week which was incredible. They did 13 services in a week and I even got to be part of the Palm Sunday one, see picture below.  It's an Anglican church which is very different from my Plymouth Brethren-rooted, non denominational background that I grew up but has been a great experience. I did not attend Rez during my freshman year but started this year as a sophomore. So this past year, I have been a co-shepherd (Sunday School teacher) for the 3rd grade class and have had the delight of working with 10-15 boys and girls every week.

Photo property and credit of Church of the Rez

I had the privilege of being part of the outdoor procession for Palm Sunday. All of the kids got to be in the procession waving ribbons and palms. We shepherds were there to manage the kids and make sure that they didn't fight with their palm fronds or go wandering off. I got to have one of those cool banner ribbon things you can see in the picture on the right. The congregants lined the sides, waving their palms and singing "Hosanna in the highest!" as we processed past them. The story of Jesus' triumphal entry became more alive to me than it ever has been. I could better picture what it must have been like for Jesus to go through all those people who were shouting "Hosanna" today and less than a week later would be shouting "Crucify Him!" I understood in a new way the celebration and the sorrow that must have been present as Jesus went into Jerusalem. The celebration around His first public claim of Messiahship and sorrow at the crowd's misunderstanding of His intentions. They did not realize that He did not come to overthrow Rome but to die upon a cross. Palm Sunday is a day to celebrate because Jesus was proclaiming His divinity and that He had come to save us but not in the way that we might expect.

Crosses at the cell tower at His Mansion

Good Friday was a somber service because the focus on the cross is a serious thing and why Jesus died is a reality that we need to acknowledge. The sermon given on shame was powerful, I might do another blog post on it someday. But the heart of the service was kneeling at the life-sized wooden cross placed on the stage. I watched families with big and small kids kneel. I watched couples together, a parent and child or teen, my fellow college students all proceed to kneel and place their hands on the cross. Throughout the service, they prayed for different groups of people who were struggling with father wounds, darkness/depression and even for Wheaton College students, all of which touched my heart. We know that healing isn't immediate or even maybe what's needed right now but the fact that they are recognizing that those problems are out there and they want to pray over the people who are struggling is what community means to me. My heart was full as I sat, watched, prayed and sang. My heart was torn between deep sadness and sorrow at the brokenness and grief that I saw in my own life as well as in the world and I know exists in the hearts of those around me. But I found a profound sense of joy at seeing the community come around one another to support one another, to hold each other and cry alongside them. Healing and love were clearly present and it was obvious that this was family, a place to be safe, to be vulnerable, to be broken. I experienced community in a way akin to His Mansion which is saying a lot for me. The love amidst the brokenness filled my heart in a way that I can't fully explain but that led me to tears both of joy and sorrow. The two seem to be always intertwined but that intertwining is the best way I can describe that service.

Easter Sunday itself was incredible but I'm not going to tell you about that right now. Easter may have been two weeks ago but it is still Eastertide according to the Anglican tradition. So that means that we are still celebrating His resurrection as we indeed ought to. We are still saying "Alleluia, He is risen!" Is that not how we should greet each other? Not only on Easter Sunday but every Sunday. His resurrection is the crux of our faith, why should we not exult about it all of the time? The banner continues to hang in the sanctuary portraying Christ with the wounds in His hand and feet yet not on the cross but victorious and alive. Bishop Stewart asked this question this morning, "How has the resurrection of Jesus transformed your life today?" I don't know how I'd answer that question. How would you? What does Easter look like for you today, tomorrow and the day after? I'm wrestling with and mulling over these questions. The song, Because He Lives, is one of my favorite Easter songs perhaps because I can sing it any time of the year and it reminds me of the hope that Easter brings. The truth rings in my heart and I pray that it will also ring in yours.