“He is not here; He is risen!”

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

“What makes this night different from any other night?”

          In a few weeks that important question will fill houses all across the world.  As our Jewish friends celebrate Passover, the youngest of each household begins the Seder with this question.  As the special meal progresses, the story of the first Passover (Exodus 12) is retold.  When God’s people were slaves in Egypt, the angel of the Lord God “passed over” the homes marked with Lamb’s blood.  Only the Egyptians and their animals suffered that day.  And, finally, at long last the king set God’s people free.

          To this day, our Jewish brothers and sisters obey God’s command to remember the Passover in a yearly celebration.  Theirs is not a passive remembering of some distant event which happened to ancestors far removed.  Nor is the story some fairy tale of long ago and far away.  The remembering is a much more powerful, active remembering.  In the re-telling of the Exodus story of the first Passover, the present community joins Moses and Zipporah, Aaron and Miriam.

          In the same way, Holy Week calls us from the sidelines.  We are there, from Palm Sunday to Good Friday to Easter.  You and I join the women (including Mary of Migdal, Mary the mother of James, and Salome) at the empty tomb.  And where we expect death and decay we find only linen wrappings and two angels.  “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” they ask.

          Mysteriously, wondrously the angels announce that we, too, have been passed over.  You and I have been set free through the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice.  Our chains have fallen off, once and for all.  Sin and death no longer have the power to control us or to keep us from life unending with God.  Our new life in God’s Promised Land has begun!

          Enclosed is an envelope for your offerings of gratitude and thanksgiving.  Your special Easter offering may be brought to Church on Easter Sunday or you may mail them to the church’s office.  Also included in this mailing is a schedule of All Saints’ and St. Mark’s Holy Week and Easter services.  An extra copy is there for you to share with a friend, family member, or neighbor. 

Please join us as together we celebrate our Lord Jesus’ precious death and glorious resurrection this Easter.  Until then, I wish you and your loved ones God’s peace and blessings!

 

 

Faithfully Yours in Christ,

Dawn-Victoria

Dawn-Victoria Mitchell, Rector

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