Dear siblings in Christ,
Easter is not just a day, it’s a whole season! Sometimes called “Eastertide”, it is the fifty (yes, fifty!) days from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday (May 19 this year). Very early in Christian history it came to be observed as a time of “continuous rejoicing” after the forty days of Lenten penitence and fasting. So let’s extend our Easter Sunday rejoicing into these next seven weeks, setting aside time to feast and make merry together around dining room tables and fire pits and restaurants and playgrounds and parks.
In the spirit of continuous rejoicing and new life, each Sunday during Eastertide we’ll be sprinkling the congregation with holy water near the beginning of the service, to remind us of our baptism. Also, our current “college of preachers” (those learning to preach at The Table–Alissa Birkel, Josie Fasoldt, and Laura Hepker) will be practicing their preaching with us during Eastertide.
We will also be offering a few healing prayer services during Eastertide (details forthcoming), and there will be an opportunity for baptism on Pentecost Sunday, May 19.
In all these ways, we are seeking to lean into the reality and hope of resurrection. As I said in my sermon this past Sunday: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and even though it’s still dark, and there is so much we do not understand, God has swallowed up death forever, new creation has dawned, and resurrection life is at work among us. So let us be glad and rejoice together in God’s salvation this Eastertide!
In Christ,
Fr. Ben
