Easter as a Season - Rector's Rambling for April 11, 2021

     What a glorious day we had last Sunday with the celebration of Easter Day here at St. John’s.  Having had attendance restrictions expanded to 25% of occupancy we safely distanced a congregation larger than anything we have had in over a year because of that virus.  How wonderful it was to sing with a portion of our choir (next year, God willing, a full choir with brass as in years previously).  May God grant many more wonderful Sundays of increasing attendance by the faithful and the seeker as we seek to glorify Jesus Christ, and to be nourished in Word and Sacrament.

Let us remember that Easter is more than a day, it is a season!  For 40 days we continue to celebrate the Resurrection until the Feast of the Ascension (May 13 this year) and then 10 days of prayer in anticipation of Whitsunday when we celebrate the outpouring of God the Holy Ghost.

Today’s Gospel lesson from St. John’s gospel actually recounts for us something that took place on Resurrection Day, when Jesus appears to the disciples gathered in the upper room.  All this past week at the Holy Communion Service and Daily Offices we have heard reading of the various Gospel appearances of Jesus.  Today the Roman Catholic and some other Episcopal congregations will be reading the account of “doubting Thomas”, which takes place a week after our reading today.  Also we read this past week about Jesus appearing to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, as well as St. Luke’s account of the Resurrection.  And there are other wonderful stories of Jesus appearing and teaching his disciples during these 40 days of Eastertide.

I encourage you to read all of these wonderful Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection appearances and be encouraged in the faith of those original followers who first reacted in fear, and by the time of Jesus’ Ascension, and then being encouraged and filled by the Holy Ghost, became witnesses to all around them of the Good News of God in Jesus Christ!

And, of course, I encourage you during these 40 days to allow yourself to be encouraged and enlightened by God’s Grace to embrace with surety the Good News of Jesus’ Resurrection, and ask God the Holy Ghost to stir up in you the gift of his presence to help you to become the disciple that Jesus desires you to be – a witness to others of His Resurrection.