Surprised by Easter Joy! Expect Easter Joy!
Thank you for your contagious Easter Joy on Easter Sunday! A smile unfurls across my face just thinkingabout that morning. Christ is Risen! Alleluia! Truthfully, I expected nothing less given the faithful walk through Lent and Holy Week that many of us took together. When a faith community chooses to accept a prayer challenge for forty days, chooses to worship together despite being in the parish hall, make a chilly
trek with waving palms in remembrance of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, honor the holy ground beneath
your feet and remove shoes to experience the power of Maundy Thursday and pound nails into the hard-
wood of a cross to let go of your sins to the transforming power of God…it is no wonder that Easter morn-
ing was filled with Joy, Hope, Resurrected Life and Love. When we trust that it is God who is in charge,expect Easter Joy. Despite the injustice and death of Good Friday, expect Easter Joy. Expect Life.
As John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople preached Easter of c. 407, “Enter all of you into the joy of
our Lord and whether first or last receive your reward. O rich and poor, one with another, dance for joy!...Celebrate the day! You that have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast, rejoice today! Thetable is rich-laden; feast royally, all of you! The calf is fattened; let no one go forth hungry! Let all partake
of the Feast of Faith…O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you
are overthrown! Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen! Christ is risen, and the Angels rejoice! Christ is
risen, and Life reigns! Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the tombs!”
These great 50 days of Easter will culminate with a grand celebration of the Day of Pentecost, May 31. Theday we rejoice in the coming of the Holy Spirit
–
“resting like tongues of fire upon each of us, asking us toclaim our own ministry”. What can we expect from such a gift? What do you expect from such a gift each
day of your life? Do you expect to be surprised by Easter Joy, like young Sumner Jansen was on Easter morning, as he guessed what was in a big-old-ugly-beat-up-good-for-nothing-cardboard-box? As the box
was opened, inside there was indeed Easter Joy … In the form of brightly colored helium balloons.In the coming weeks the people of St. Mark’s will begin to ask such questions about what we expect. What
can you expect when you come to a service on Sunday? How do you expect to be treated as a member of
St. Mark’s? What do you expect of the clergy and one another? What might the clergy expect of the par-
ish? What do you expect of yourself as an active member of this faith community? And this is only the be-ginning as we strive to learn what is most important to this parish at this time in its history based on expec-tations of our time, talent and treasure.Mark your calendars,
Sunday, June 14
, 9 a.m. service followed by an all parish conversation and sharing ameal. Expect to be surprised by Easter Joy as we move through this time of discovery and ways forward.
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen! Christ is risen, and the Angels rejoice! Christ is risen, and Lifereig
ns!
Expect it!
From the Rector The Rev Sherry Osborn
St Mark’s
E
vangel
MAY/JUNE 2009
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