April this year is somewhat odd in that it doesn’t contain Easter Sunday. Easter most often occurs in April, but this year it came early, at the end of March, and so here April sits, Easter-less.
Well, not exactly Easter-less, because every Sunday in April is a Sunday of Easter. It’s called the Easter Season, and that season runs from Easter Sunday until Pentecost Sunday, which this year is May 15th. It’s all Easter, because the Good News of Easter, the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, the Good News of the victory of life over death, the Good News of God’s final, ultimate victory, is simply too much Good News to be contained in one Sunday. It takes a whole season – 7 Sundays plus Pentecost (with The Ascension thrown in for good measure40 days after Easter Sunday, on May 5th).
Every Sunday in April is a celebration of Easter. The Easter joy continues week after week. We hear stories of the risen Jesus appearing to his disciples, we hear Jesus speak of being the Good Shepherd, and we hear Jesus talk of the necessity of us loving one another. We also read from the book of Acts, and learn how the earliest followers took this Easter Good News out into the world. We also dip our toes in the strange book of Revelation, and hear about visions of the fulfillment of God’s final victory.
April is filled with inspiring and challenging scripture that helps us find the deeper meaning and the deeper truth behind and beyond the joyous Easter gospel of resurrection. Now that Jesus has been raised, what does that mean for us in our daily lives? How did the earliest Christians live out, preach, proclaim, and spread this Good News? April may not have Easter itself, but each Sunday is filled with the Easter message. But beyond April, every Sunday is, in some way, filled with that same Easter message.
Every Sunday throughout the year is a little Easter celebration, because every Sunday we proclaim and give thanks and praise for the Good News that Jesus has been raised, that life has triumphed over death, and that God has already won the final victory over all the forces that still seek to separate us from God and that amazing resurrection love that is our constant Good News.
From the very beginnings of the Christian church, the followers of Jesus gathered to worship and pray and Praise and share the Holy Communion, not on the seventh day, the traditional Jewish, Old Testament Sabbath, but on the first day, the day when Jesus was raised from the dead. The earliest followers remembered how the women went to the tomb on the first day of the week, at early dawn, only to find the tomb empty, only to be told they should not seek the living among the dead, for Jesus has been raised. As they went and told the others, as they gave thanks and rejoiced, so Christians gathered on that same first day of the week, to celebrate once again that Jesus is not dead, but alive, forevermore, and to pray and sing and share the meal in celebration of that Easter victory, and then, fed and empowered, to go out, the rest of the week, and live out and witness to that same Easter Good News.
Every Sunday, in April and throughout the whole year, is a celebration of Easter. Come and share in that joy! See you in church!
Peace,
Pr. Paul