Colored Eggs Into Egg Salad

I pray that your Easter was a joyous one as we celebrated the new life Jesus makes possible for us by rising on Easter morning. 
Well, Easter is over.  The Easter baskets filled with assorted candies, chocolate bunnies, and jelly beans have been devastated.  Hopefully the count of colored Easter eggs scattered about the house, hidden but not too   hidden, is accurate and there are no hidden bombs to be discovered weeks or months from now.  Oh, and   Easter worship services have been attended faithfully by the whole family.  We can go back to things as usual.

The basket grass will be vacuumed up, leftover ham turned into soup (mine will be split pea), and if too many colored eggs are left over (we will, since no kids are here & we still color eggs  —  Yes, I color eggs.  They taste better colored.), we can always make egg salad.  Once the colored shell is removed, they are, after all,  only hard boiled eggs.  It’s almost sad when we describe the aftermath of Easter in these terms.  That’s really a shame.  I kind of like the glorious joy of Easter to hang around for a while and it should.

Easter is more than a day in the church calendar  —  it’s a season, seven weeks long and every Sunday is a  little Easter of its own.  The message of Easter resurrection is still very much evident in the lessons we will share each of those Sundays.  No, as a pastor preaching I can’t keep the same high level of excitement that is       connected to the worship of THE Easter morning celebrations.  However, I sure don’t want the worship or   sermon following Easter Sunday to support the unfortunate attitude ascribed by many to the Sunday after   Easter as “let down Sunday” simply because the number of people showing up is somewhat diminished.  I don’t want my enthusiasm for the message I am proclaiming to be any less energized or powerful.  It’s still Easter and our Lord is risen indeed!

Okay, the colored eggs are changed into egg salad, but I like egg salad.  It tastes good, even better than normal because the eggs were colored.  It is satisfying and so are the messages of Easter visits by our Lord to a    doubting Thomas or on the road or at a BBQ at the seashore.  We need to hear those messages every bit as much as the word about an empty tomb or foot races to the place where Jesus was buried.  He lives and because He lives we can live too.

Don’t be a “C & E” Christian.  (For those unfamiliar with this term, it means Christmas and Easter, suggesting, only suggesting mind you, that there might possibly be some believers who only come to God’s house during these two special holidays.)  I am quite confident you are not numbered among them.  I invite you to God’s house this Sunday.  I’m sure your pastor or priest is doing his or her best to keep the glorious joy of Easter alive.  If you’re not sure, then I invite you to come to St. Paul in Bulverde because I’ll be doing my best to keep the energy level high. 

Easter is far from being over.  Join me for some egg salad.
Pastor Lee