We celebrate Easter every Sunday.
This has been a critical part of our self-identity for my time at Stratmoor. I developed the phrase by combining ideas that Sunday worship should be a celebration and every Sunday is to be understood in terms of Easter. It wasn’t hard to meld those two ideas into a phrase that spoke volumes about who I hoped we could and would be: celebratory people finding hope in the resurrection story.
We are now in the midst of the seven week period that is named Easter.
Easter at its core is faith in the related ideas that death does not define us and that God will roll away the stones which separates us from wholeness.
It is my prayer and hope that those related ideas continue to be part of the Stratmoor self-identity. The hope that was Jesus appeared to die on Good Friday and the disciples and his followers mourned: hope was dead. They discovered on Easter that hope was not dead, but very much alive. Faith in the resurrection was the engine that powered the growth of Christianity. The power of the idea that death does not define us gave so many previously without hope … hope.
I invite us in the Season of Easter to hold to the faith that we do celebrate Easter every Sunday. Every Sunday is a little Easter, and every Easter is a great Sunday and whether a little Easter or a great Sunday, we are to come into worship to celebrate.
We celebrate Easter every Sunday. Let’s embody that phrase every week!
Selah
Pastor Dennis
