Dear Friends,
I am still recovering from the most amazing Passion Sunday, Holy Week and Easter ever. At least the most amazing in the last two years. Though the stories we told, the songs we sang, the prayers we offered were ancient, they seemed fresh and new and challenging. Thank you for making this, the pinnacle of our life together, a time to be savored and celebrated.
But Easter lasts more than a Sunday. We are in the Octave of Easter at this moment—the eight days that began last Sunday and conclude on the Sunday ahead of us. We are also in the Season of Easter—a seven-week celebration and study of the implications of the resurrection. I invite you to join us for worship for the whole of the season.
That said, this is my 36th Easter preaching season and, between you and me, I have grown a bit weary of the usual cast of Easter characters and commentaries. Doubting Thomas. Breakfast on the Beach. Good Shepherd. The Final Discourse. No disrespect to scripture, but in 36 years I’ve spent more time with Thomas than with most of you. I need a new challenge, a new way to imagine Easter.
Please join me for a six-week Sunday preaching series on “Resurrection Repercussions.” Together we’ll walk through the assigned first readings each Sunday—readings from the book of Acts about the impact of Jesus’ resurrection on the first believers and first Christian communities. This Sunday, we’ll consider a favorite text from Acts 5, in which the temple elders are trying to decide if they should actively persecute Jesus’ followers or starve them of attention, hoping they’ll just go away. (Acts 5.27-39)
While considering how significantly to punish the apostles, who wouldn’t shut up about Jesus, one of the temple elders advised, “I tell you, leave these men alone. If their plan is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.”
It was wise advice then; it is wise advice now: “Wait for it.” We cannot see God at work in the midst of a thing, only when it is done.
But before we gather for worship, we invite you to the next in our “One Tree Many Branches” concert series. Saturday afternoon, we welcome “one of today’s most dynamic young concert artists,” Winston Choi, to our piano bench. The concert will be mask-optional; no refreshments will be served. The concert is free and open to the public.
After worship on Sunday, we conclude our Lent Challenge with “All Ascension Reads: After the Last Border,” by Jessica Goudeau. I encourage you to read this beautiful, heartbreaking, challenging true story and join the conversation. But even if you haven’t had a chance to read the book, you are welcome to listen in.
As we close in on the Second Sunday of Easter, our Orthodox siblings are marking Good Friday today, and will celebrate Pascha (Easter) on Sunday. Our Muslim siblings continue their Ramadan fast. Our Jewish siblings are savoring the delicious memories and promises of the Passover just past. All around the world, the faithful remember God’s promises and lean into God’s future. Because, in spite of all efforts to suppress God’s efforts, as Gamaliel said, “If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it.”
Trusting our work is of God,
Pastor JoAnn Post
A Word from Pastor 