Easter 2008

Alleluia! He is risen! What a wonderful way to start a worship service, by proclaiming that to a congregation gathered to worship the risen Christ. The response to that acclamation by the congregation is, “He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”

We could do that every week since each Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection but we choose not to in order to focus on other aspects of His work at various times through the year. This season, which lasts until Pentecost, fifty days later, is the season of rejoicing each week over the resurrection of Jesus as the first born from the dead so we use that acclamation as the beginning of our worship.

Recently someone compared this pattern to legalism and I don’t understand the comparison. It would be like someone asking me who I thought would win the NCAA basketball tournament, receiving my answer and then asking me if I took into consideration Peyton Manning. The two things have nothing to do with one another. The liturgical calendar we choose (important word) to follow ensures that we don’t focus on one aspect of God at the expense of the full counsel.

The calendar gives my life a rhythm and pattern that I need. Since most of us don’t live by the seasons as we did when farming was the norm, the only discernible rhythm to our lives (at least mine) was sports or school terms. I need an internal, spiritual rhythm as well that allows me to sync my life with the Word of God and the work of God.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 14:20 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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