And here comes Easter Sunday on April 20th
April is here!
And here comes Easter Sunday on April 20th. In my Year of Lasts, this is the last Easter Sunday I will celebrate as Pastor at MBPPC. It’s a funny thing — one might expect me to feel sad or nostalgic. But what I am feeling as Easter Sunday, 2025, approaches is joyful. The approach of my last Easter Sunday at MBPPC feels similar to how I felt as my last Christmas Eve did.
On Christmas Eve, 2024, my last as Pastor at MBPPC, I felt joyful. At that time, almost no one knew of my plans to retire in 2025. So it felt like a secret joy to me. Being very good at worry, I worried that the secret would oppress me. I thought,
“How will I bear to be leading worship and preaching on my last Christmas Eve, when I have to keep it a secret that it’s my last one at MBPPC?”
But my worries proved to be baseless. It felt light and fun — exactly as Christmas Eve ought to feel! So, having experienced that feeling, and now with the news being known by everyone, I anticipate great joy this coming Easter Sunday. And why not? It’s a day to celebrate the good news that the Light has overcome the darkness, that God has emptied sin of its power, that death itself is swallowed up in life. In this year, when darkness seems like the daily diet for many of us in the United States and all over the world, what a wonderful, even transgressive, joy we are free to unleash!
When I do feel nostalgic (which is not very often — the present is too fascinating) I think back to our Easter worship in 2002. As repairs to the church building were still underway following the Nisqually earthquake, we had to celebrate Easter Sunday at the Mt. Baker Community Club. We had no piano, no pews, no stained glass. We had to go down early in the morning and set up several hundred folding chairs. Easter morning was a bright, sunny day. The light flooded the Community Club. Several people played guitar (and Todd Jamieson, may he rest in peace, played banjo). We sang. We heard the good news of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we broke bread. It was the most memorable and joyful Easter I have ever celebrated.
So, as we look toward Easter Sunday, 2025 during my Year of Lasts, I look forward to unleashing memorable joy!
Remember to make Easter more meaningful by attending worship on Palm Sunday, April 13th; Maundy Thursday at 7:00 p.m., on April 17th; and our joint celebration of Good Friday, along with Madrona Presbyterian and Japanese Presbyterian, at 7:00 p.m., on April 18th.
In Christ,
Lee