CHRIST IS RISEN!

CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!

This kid gets it. The joy, the jubilation that is Easter. The good news that Christ is risen! (I know, you're thinking that he's more excited about the joy that comes with finding an Easter egg, but I think you're wrong).

I have to admit, I didn't have the jubilation of this young man when I got out of bed at six o'clock this morning. I was pretty sure that my attitude was justified because Jesus rose with the sun, right? (I'm working on historical-theological evidence for that statement) Well, the sun wasn't up, so I had time to put on my celebration face.

There's some part of pastors, church musicians, youth directors, church workers, church volunteers, and pastors-to-be that allow us to work extra hours during Holy Week and Easter on details that put a smile on other's faces, but drive us to want to sleep for the next week to recover. Today was no exception.

This morning's worship was jubilant, the kids were in rare form (I watched one boy eat chocolate eggs, jelly beans, peeps, and whatever else he could find in his basket during the entire worship service ... I'd hate to be his parent, but then I watched his mother permit all of his consumption, so I guess she brought it on herself). Some of the little girls in their Easter dresses (though I didn't see any of the famous Easter bonnets). Some of the boys in suits that I'm pretty sure their parents bought for Easter with high hopes the child won't grow for at least another year or two so they get more use out of the suit.

All of this to celebrate the resurrection joy.

I have to admit, I find some solace in the somberness of Holy Week. It's a reflective time when I think a lot and it's fine to be there for a time. But, I live in the hope of the Risen Christ. In the joy that comes with knowing that when a group of women went to a tomb to find Jesus, there were only angels there saying, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

The dead. I got news this morning that one of the men that I delivered communion to a little while back passed away yesterday morning. I recall one of the great saints of a church I used to be a member of who passed away on Easter Sunday. I recall in both of these men a quiet smile, a quiet sense of the resurrection, a hope in what is to come, and Easter hope. I can see these two men and all the saints who have passed before us emphatically responding with us, "CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!"

I have great memories of Easters gone by ... times when we would visit my grandparents and eat hard-boiled eggs in the fellowship hall after worship ... times when my grandma would find such joy in hiding eggs for all of us grand-kids to find (and the one time she hid an egg in the pocket of a jacket in her closet that none of us kids found, but she found a few weeks later) ... times when I would sneak an extra jelly bean (never the black or red ones though), milk chocolate egg, or other treat when "mom and dad weren't looking" (no, they couldn't hear the wrapper being unwrapped) ... times when we would sit down as a family to carve into the Easter ham with all the trimmings. All of these memories around the celebration that ...

CHRIST IS RISEN!

CHRIST IS RISEN INDEED!