Events are important. They are markers. Events matter. In the Old Testament, we see places where God won a significant battle for the Israelites. And, they would mark it with an altar, a stone, what we call an Ebenezer (Do you know that old song that says, "Here I raise my Ebenezer”?).
And yet, life is more than a series of events. We now find ourselves in the season of Easter. Easter is not just a day and then we go on to life as normal. As Americans, we are very focused on events. The Biblical calendar is very focused on seasons and rhythms.
We are living into a season of feasting, of celebration, of jumping into what it means to be a Resurrection People. If Jesus really rose from the dead, that means that everything is different.
N.T. Wright says of the Easter season,
It ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom?
…we should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts, anything that comes to mind. This is our greatest festival.
Join us as we live into this great festival and seek to be a Resurrection People.
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!