Dear Friends in Christ,

Like Christmas, Easter has come and gone – in one day on the calendar.  But as with Christmas, a season follows.  And, Eastertide is longer than Christmastide – by 38 days (50 vs. 12).   

This difference in length of seasons is due to the timing of subsequent “holy” days.  After Christmas comes Epiphany commemorating the wise astrologers’ arrival at the manger 12 days after Jesus’ birth, and after Easter comes Pentecost commemorating the Holy Spirit’s descent on Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection. 

There are Biblical meanings associated with these numbers, but I think there’s a psychological element at work here, too, namely that it takes longer to embrace Easter than it does Christmas.  For Christmas is about the birth of the divine, new life in a birth, and Easter is about the birth of human, new life in a death!  Christmas seems a little more “natural” and easier to “swallow” than Easter.      

And, as if 50 days weren’t enough for us to internalize Easter’s amazing story, the church has not only given us this annual season to commemorate Easter’s new birth; it’s given us 52 Sundays a year  for as many years as we have on earth!  For, our forebears imagined every Sunday to be a commemoration of Easter!

Now, what if we imagined every Sunday in this way?  What if we imagined every Sunday as not simply a day of rest or a day for worship of God, but rather as Easter and a day of our own new birth  out of our past life and, even, our impending death?   For a moment… just imagine! 

Blessings of Eastertide – and birth after birth after birth,
Pastor Ed