"Jesus Christ is ris'n today, Alleluia! Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! Who did once upon a cross, Alleluia! Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!" (ELW 365)
Easter Greetings!!! I love this season and I love this hymn. Yet this has not been a regular season, at least for me and my family. Lent this year closed with a very poignant reality with the sudden death of my father Robert Egtvedt. After entering hospice March 8th, Dad let out his last breath on March 12th. You can follow the rest of the events that week if you want check out my Facebook page but that is not our focus here. Robert Egtvedt died, his remains were buried with honors, but like the women who went early that Easter morning to properly prepare Jesus's body, we have been gripped with both sadness & gloom. Yet despite the gloom and anguish these events leave in our human lives, Easter through the lens of the cross, shows us hope. Hope in how the empty tomb shows us how death no longer as the final say; how death is no longer the end, but ... rather... a new beginning!
Very soon congregation members will be receiving a financial update with their quarterly statements. Having lost several members earlier this year, our numbers have been lower than we would like, yet as Christ has shown us with death, numbers also do not have the final say. Just today we had a couple from Madison, WI stop in at the church to get information for their children who have a vacation house at the lake. We have been blessed with visitors whom have not been seen since the move from the Garrett 8 Theater. We have had new permanent lake residents join us for Prayers around the Cross and worship. We have one new associate member and two families who have said they will be retiring to the lake this spring. Easter reminds us not just of what we have lost, but more importantly of what we have won through Christ.
The cross has the power to turn hopelessness into hope. Dad may be dead, but he is with Christ and as we celebrate Christ's resurrection, we know that our loved one(s) will also be resurrected. This is the hope of the empty tomb - this is the message of Easter.
CHRIST IS RISEN!!! ALLELUIA!
Pastor Rick
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