This month is the celebration of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunday.  On Thursday, April 21, 2011, the Maundy Thursday Service will begin at 7:00 p.m.  During the service we will share a time of recreating the Lord’s Supper and the celebration of Communion.  Please come and celebrate this special service.

On Easter Sunday we will hold an Easter Egg hunt and celebration with the children during the Sunday school time.  Bring your children and come and play, then join in worship and the celebration of the Empty Tomb and the promise of life.

What are we celebrating at the end of this month?  What does it mean for us that God overthrew death and offered us the opportunity to become His heirs and brothers and sisters to Jesus.  It means that we are more capable and are fully worthy of God’s love and grace.  In the book Common Prayer, a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, the readings for Easter include the following:

“Clarence Jordan, co-founder of Koinonia Farm, wrote, ‘The resurrection of Jesus was God’s unwillingness to take our “no” for an answer.  He raised Jesus, not as an invitation to us to come to Heaven when we die, but as a declaration that he himself has now established permanent, eternal residence here on earth.  He is standing beside us, strengthening us in his life.  The good news of the resurrection of Jesus is not that we shall die and go home to be with him, but that he has risen and comes home with us, bringing all his hungry, naked, thirsty, sick, prisoner brothers with him.’”

No matter where we have been or what we have gone through, we are to build the community of God in this world to mirror the kingdom in heaven.  Easter is the time to celebrate and live as Jesus taught and as God created us to live.

Shalom,  Darrell