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“Alleluia Christ is Risen!
He is
Risen Indeed, Alleluia!”
Yes,
we’re still proclaiming it during worship.
Yes, it is STILL the season of
Easter.
In the minds of so many of us, Easter
Sunday functions as the “Day of Days,” the
ultimate, the climax of our celebration of
Christ’s resurrection.
We pull out all the stops, joyfully
wear out our Lent-weary voices, then go home
for dinner and a nap.
It’s how we’ve been conditioned, in a
way, and that conditioning is reinforced by
schedules of the activities that make up our
daily lives.
Around Eastertime, sports practice
schedules are ratcheted up, college students
prepare for final exams as high schoolers
head toward “prom season.”
People are now planning their summer
getaways in earnest.
The sun and warmer breezes coax us
into a new season, a new pace of life.
And, let’s face it:
after Easter Sunday, we church people
are wiped out.
So many songs rehearsed, altars set,
bulletins copied and folded, sermons
written, soup suppers and mid-week worship
services prepared.
It’s seems natural, even necessary,
to slow down after the Queen of Sundays has
been celebrated.
But, there’s a little hitch in that plan.
You see, Easter is not a day—it’s a
season.
It’s a fifty-day season of
celebrating Christ’s victory over death.
“Jesus is risen, and we shall arise!”
Clearly, that proclamation must be
celebrated longer than a day.
And so we continue to ponder Jesus’
post-resurrection appearances among his
followers, his teachings about what life
will “look like” once he’s ascended to
heaven and no longer with us in the fleshly
way he once was.
We continue to shout “Alleluia!” with
abandon.
And we prepare to celebrate yet
another great Festival of the Christian
church year:
the Day of Pentecost, the great
beginning of the mission of Christ’s
church—that’s us!—in all the world.
To quote a venerable Lutheran
Manual
on the Liturgy:
The Day of Pentecost is the culmination of
the Easter celebration:
the risen Christ, having shown
himself to his disciples and having
ascended, sends the promised gift of the
Spirit to the expectant church.
The coming of the Spirit gives the
church the power and the necessary gifts to
carry the glad news of the resurrection from
Jerusalem to Galilee to the ends of the
earth.
(from: Philip H. Pfatteicher and Carlos R.
Messerli,
Manual on the Liturgy; Minneapolis: Augsburg
Publishing House, 1979; p. 26.)
And so, we celebrate the
culmination of the Easter season on the Day
of Pentecost (which falls this year on May
23rd) with generous drapings of
bright red, symbolizing the fire of the Holy
Spirit.
We give thanks for the gift of
Christ’s resurrection, and look to be
strengthened and inspired by the Spirit to
share the news near and far, throughout the
world.
With the great Festival of Pentecost,
we celebrate the birth of the church’s
mission to “make disciples of all nations.”
But even before that, we celebrate
the promised presence of God, through the
Holy Spirit, to guide and grow us all the
days after Pentecost to this very day.
So, try to remember—wear
red to worship on Sunday, May 23rd,
and be prepared to celebrate with great joy!
In Christ,
Pastor Jill
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