March 2008

AN EARLY EASTER

 Easter is early this year, March 23. That is the earliest date for Easter from 1970-2040. You won’t want to miss this earliest of Easters for seventy years.

The calculations for the date of Easter are somewhat complicated in the Western Church (Roman Catholicism, the Anglican Church and most Protestant churches, including the United Methodist Church). The date of Easter is associated with Passover. Church leaders have been discussing and arguing about the proper date to celebrate Easter since the second century. Webster’s New World Collegiate Dictionary simply says, “an annual Christian festival celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, held on the first Sunday after the date of the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21.”

The date of Easter is a movable date, varying from the earliest date, March 22 to the latest possible date, April 25. I think it’s good that Easter is not tied to a particular date every year. Think of how it could be buried by consumerism, vacation packages and Spring breaks which, to some extent it is, but it could be more buried if it was a date to be counted on each year. Yes, I think it’s good that Easter is a moving and movable date. Keeps us flexible.

Easter is probably too big and important a celebration to get buried by any trappings we may add to it. Getting an Easter basket when I was a child was something I looked forward to, but the meaning of Easter got through to me. Even as a child I knew it was about more than chocolate bunnies and eggs.

At Mulberry Street United Methodist Church we will culminate Lent and Holy Week with an Easter breakfast at 8:30 a.m., to be followed by one service at 10:00 a.m., with our choir/praise team presenting a cantata, “Praise the God of Resurrection” directed by Elizabeth Boskovich. It is a re-telling of the major events leading to the Resurrection.

You won’t want to miss Easter this year.

Grateful to be serving as your Interim Pastor, Irwin E. Jennings