Emmanuel Lutheran Church

May 2023

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! While Easter has come and gone on the secular calendar and people have hunted eggs, eaten their chocolate and had their Easter dinners, the church continues to celebrate our risen Lord for the fifty days of Easter ending on Pentecost Sunday. If you count the days, you might say “Pastor, I only count forty nine days.” True, but the Easter Vigil is included in that fifty day period.

Like so many other Biblical events, the resurrected Jesus was with us for forty of those fifty days. We celebrate his ascension on the fortieth day, which this year is May 18. So, while Christmas gives Christians twelve days to celebrate, Easter gives us just over four times that! This holy time allows us to dwell in the wonder and awe of the resurrection.

Like the disciples and others, in this time of Easter, we see Jesus at unexpected times and in unexpected places. Perhaps, like the two who walked with him to Emmaus, we don’t recognize Jesus right away. Only later, perhaps in prayer or reading scripture, do we recognize who had been walking with us that day. Maybe it is in the breaking of bread and pouring of wine during Communion where his presence is revealed to us. Perhaps it is in our daily work where Jesus meets us. Certainly it is in the telling of our “God Stories” that our eyes are opened and we see Jesus.

Of course, Jesus is with us always, but the Easter season gives us reason to look closer than we might at other times. Those who journeyed through Lent with Jesus to the cross and grave…those who are journeying with Jesus through difficult and dark times right now, know that those times, that stone that closed the tomb, is only temporary. Easter sightings of Jesus abound and bring great joy even in the midst of tears. He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Did you know that, while the Easter season is just fifty days of the calendar year, every Sunday is a “little Easter?” That’s why Lent’s forty days are more than forty – the Sundays during Lent are not included. Every Sunday we come together in worship we celebrate that the tomb is empty and the Jesus is raised from death.

Worship is never about us, but always about Christ’s presence among us as we journey along the road of this life. We need that fellowship and the breaking of bread together to help us see that he is not dead, but he is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! We are strengthened by his presence. Come and worship the risen Lord!

Pastor Alan