I’ve seen them referred to as “the poinsettia and lily crowd,” those who show up to church for Christmas and Easter. It’s crass, an insider’s jab at the allegedly less committed and less concerned. But really, if you’re going to show up to church on any two days of the year, those are pretty good ones. While faith and understanding certainly should be deepened and nuanced, there is a sense in which those two days tell you everything you need to know about the Christian faith.
Christmas, of course, is the birth of the little baby Jesus. And, of course, it is so much more than that. It is the time of incarnation, the time when God enters the world in a body of flesh and blood. We learn from Christmas that, whatever God wants of this world, it can only be had with a body. But bodies come with a price: they have to die. One might say that all religion, all philosophy, perhaps all human endeavors, are to deal with that one tragic fact.
Easter is Christianity’s way of dealing with it. After the long, hard slog of Lent, we finally come to the feast of new life. Jesus is put in the tomb and, three days later, walks right back out. And we are promised that we will receive the same! Death is conquered and new life begins!
Of course, there is more to it. More to the faith and more to life and death and the theology of resurrection. What does Jesus’ death mean? What does the resurrection mean? Did it really happen? Will it happen to us? Does it really matter? Most importantly, what is this new life for and when can we get started?
Whether you attend Church in the Cliff, or any church, every Sunday, or never at all, we welcome you to join us this Easter Sunday at 11am at the Kessler Theater as we celebrate life made new, the feast of Spring!
Grace and Peace,
Scott
Easter Egg Hunt
Bring the kids early this Sunday for an Easter egg hunt. We’ll have breakfast snacks and coffee for the big people.
Relief for Victims of the Storms
Our friends at Cathedral of Hope are collecting gift cards for victims of this week’s tornadoes and we’d like to help out. God does not cause these tragedies, but we are called by God to respond. Bring gift cards for restaurants, hardware stores, grocery stores, drug stores, etc. to Church in the Cliff this Sunday and we will make sure they get to Cathedral.
Eat. Drink. Connect.
We don’t have a lot of programs at our small church, but we do have a lot of people working in non-profit service whose efforts we try to support. Teri Walker, the Executive Director of the Aberg Center for Literacy is one such person as are the many people from Church in the Cliff who volunteer and serve on the board at Aberg. In that spirit of support, this week we will forgo our usual Wednesday dinner to attend a happy hour and fundraiser for the Aberg Center at the Barley House from 6-8pm, April 11.