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Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a wonderful week. And I trust that you had a great Easter weekend!  I certainly did. 

I suppose at one level it’s impossible not to have a good Easter weekend. How could anyone possibly reflect on the truth that our Lord and Creator loved us enough to send His Son, who offered His life in our place to resolve our sin problem, and who conquered sin and death in His triumph over the grave, without experiencing some sense of wonder and worship and joy? Easter really is the most wonderful time of the year, because it’s a time when we celebrate the most wonderful things that have ever happened in all creation. How could we not have a good Easter weekend?

All the same, on any given weekend, we might have quite a range of different experiences. I’m happy to report that mine were very encouraging.

It was good to pause and reflect together with many of you on Friday evening at our Tenebrae service. Though our theme was solemn, there was a sense of our Lord’s presence and healing power even as we remembered the darkness of Gethsemane and Golgotha.

Of course, it was wonderful to follow up with a celebration on Sunday morning! What a joy to remember that God has opened the door to eternal life—to a resurrection life in which we begin to taste the first hints of the abundant life which will be experienced in full as we also go through the process of resurrection (or transformation if our Lord returns soon). How good to sing and pray our praises to the Lord for His amazing love! How fun to hear the choir, and how encouraging to witness the confession of faith of several of our brothers and sisters in baptism! And it was great to see many guests among us—family members and friends, folks who’ve been part of our church in the past, and folks who’ve never been here before—gathered to celebrate and to fellowship. I hope many of you had opportunities to meet and welcome some of our guests, and that those who brought guests were pleased with the way they were welcomed. May God continue to work in the hearts and minds of all who joined us on Sunday, and especially in those who have not yet given their hearts to our Lord.

In between, our family had Easter dinner on Saturday. Food was good, as was the conversation with friends. It has long been a tradition in our house to include elements of a Christian Passover Seder as part of our own Easter dinner, and we did again this year. So, in addition to filling our stomachs, we had yet another opportunity to think about the Lamb of God slain on our behalf, and to remember His return from death and His future return to gather those who are His. It was fun, and was a good foretaste of this coming Sunday’s message and the Seder event to follow.

(I’m glad our church is making this event available—it will be a rich learning experience. I wish we were able to accommodate everyone at the Seder, though logistics make it impossible to create enough seats for everyone. Apologies to those who were hoping to attend but who weren’t able to get tickets before they sold out. We’ll try to do it again in the not-too-distant future, and will do our best to make it available to the rest of our community. In the meantime, if you’re not able to join but are curious, let me know or speak with our guest Alan Shore this weekend and we’ll connect you with some resources to learn more about it. You might start with one of several good, small books on Christ In the Passover such as these:  Christ in the Passover: Rosen, Ceil, Rosen, Moishe: 9780802413895: Books - Amazon.ca; The Christian's Guide to Passover: A Seder Haggadah for Christ-Followers: Thomas, Judah: 9780692412961: Books - Amazon.ca, or with a video such as Christ in the Passover with David Brickner - Jews for Jesus.)

Lots of other things happened in the week leading up to Easter and again on Monday, making the days very full. So I don’t know about all of you, but I’m both happy and a bit tired. That’s normal at this time of year, and Diane and I have planned to sneak away for a couple of days to sleep a lot and recoup some energy. That, too, is part of having a wonderful Easter season in our house.

I’m conscious that there are others out there who are also tired, and who in some cases have had to deal with difficult circumstances over the Easter weekend. I won’t include a list here, but I’m sure we can all think of friends and family who are dealing with illness, loss, uncertainty, and other concerns that may have clouded the otherwise bright skies of Easter week. May we all have grace to keep them in mind and to uphold them faithfully in prayer in this season. If you’re one of them, may you have a clear sense of the presence of the risen Lord, who is able to walk with you through this season and to bring you safely out into better things. He understands our pain because of His own suffering, and He is able to redeem and restore because He is risen.

For all of us, whatever our situation may be this week, may our hearts continue to be lifted up by the words we’ve sung together recently:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, all fear is gone--
Because I know He holds the future.
And life is worth the living, just because He lives!

He is risen. So, unlike those chocolate eggs and bunnies which, at least in our house, are now pretty much gone, the power of Easter carries on through the rest of the year. May you live fully in the joy of that truth, this week and all year!

Richest blessings!

Pastor Ken