Eastertide

Wanda Stopher

Though we often think of Easter as a day of celebration, in the Christian liturgical calendar, Eastertide is a whole season of celebration that culminates with the celebration of Pentecost. Each Sunday in this fifty day period is another Easter. Actually, every Sunday in the church year is a celebration of resurrection, but in Eastertide, the gospel stories recount the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection and in the lectionary, the prophetic texts are replaced with accounts of the early church in Acts, enlivened by the Spirit in a repeat incarnation of God in the newly formed body of Christ!

How will we celebrate Eastertide this year at First Mennonite Church? How will we practice resurrection? How will we position ourselves to witness it in our midst and to recognize it when it happens? How will we name the resurrections we experience, great and small? And yes, how will we celebrate?

Will we? How will we? In the words of the old television show, Mission Impossible, “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”is to practice resurrection this Eastertide. How you celebrate or practice will be as different and unique as one person is from another. As for me, I’ve decided I’ll write. I’ll pay attention to resurrections great and small in and around me. And I’ll write a fifty word reflection each day for these fifty days of Eastertide. However you celebrate, I will welcome your presence with me on this journey. I welcome conversations about how you will choose to celebrate, and later about what you’re discovering along the way. Share with me! I’ll share my reflections on the church website. May God’s own Spirit enliven our celebrations!

(To read each 50-word reflection, please click on the links below.)

Eastertide 1 – Resurrection Dawns

Eastertide 2 – Where, as, when

Eastertide 3 – Birds and seeds

Eastertide 4 – Rock and slow

Eastertide 5 – Rhythms of life

Eastertide 6 – Where, as, when

Eastertide 7 – Forget-me-not

Eastertide 8 – Chaos creating space

Eastertide 9 – Prayer rising

Eastertide 10 – Come in

Eastertide 11 – From a deep place

Eastertide 12 – Prerequisite

Eastertide 13 – Remembering

Eastertide 14 – Abundance

Eastertide 15 – Waking

Eastertide 16 – Re-membered

Eastertide 17 – Re-worded

Eastertide 18 – Meanings

Eastertide 19 – Awake

Eastertide 20 – All in

Eastertide 21 -Double take

Eastertide 22 -Psalms

Eastertide 23 – Worship

Eastertide 24 – Spring Again

Eastertide 25 – Connections

Eastertide 26 – Dreams

Eastertide 27 – Prayer

Eastertide 28 – Transformation

Eastertide 29 – Don’t rush me