Easter Week…

For a long time the people of God met and worshiped together on the 7th day of the week.  This made sense, because the concept of “Sabbath” (rest) had been patterned by God.  Given to us as a gift, God knew we needed a regular reminder to slow down, pause, and re-orient our lives around thankfulness to Him.  An entire day to exist differently, that it may be our regular “time tithe” we offer to God.  The sabbath was also, in a way, a celebration and affirmation of God’s act of Creation, because on the “7th Day” of that creation, He sabbathed.

Fast forward thousands of years.  The people of God and all of creation experience and bear witness to the beginning of “New Creation” with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We don’t believe Jesus simply “came back from the dead”, as if his blood simply began flowing again.  We believe Jesus was given His resurrection body ahead of all of us (“firstborn from among the dead”), and stands as God’s firstfruits of New Creation.  In the life of Jesus, his actions and words were all about bringing Heaven and Earth together.  In His resurrected body, we see it is not only occurring as event, but exists as being.

With the birth of “New Creation” on the first day of the week (the resurrection), we were transformed to “1st Day Sabbath” people.  This is a large part of why we worship on Sunday’s now, proclaiming that we people who are being made new.  We desire New Creation, and look forward to the resurrection of all people, and coming together of Heaven and Earth that has already begun, and will be completed someday.

All of that to say – Easter is a big deal for us Jesus-followers.

It seems like a bit of a let-down to have a period of 40 days (Lent) leading up to Easter; only to wear our bonnets and find our eggs, go out to brunch, and wear a new tie for a day.  It surely can’t only be about inviting new people to church that Sunday, and sitting with friends and family who haven’t been to church since Christmas.  That’s not much of a celebration.  Even if we tag on an Easter ham waiting back at home.

Since our family is pretty low on home-made pyrotechnics, and the yacht we ordered still hasn’t come in – we’ve been celebrating“Easter Week” in our home.  There are 5 people in our home, and 5 weekdays.  Each person gets to pick a day, and insert something special to celebrate Easter that day.  (Happy Easter Thursday, by the way!!)

So far this week: we’ve built an awesome blanket fort that we camped overnight in, we’ve gone to the zoo, we ordered stuffed crust pizza, went to Claire’s to pick out some fun cheap jewelry, and made “Get Well” cards for a neighbor.  And it’s only Thursday!!!  Looking forward to what is yet to happen this week, and I want to challenge you to give another burst of celebration this week to the amazing fact that New Creation has begun!!!