2018: Celebrating The 50 Days After Easter
Embracing God’s Divine Healing Work On Earth as In Heaven
On April 1, 2018, most Christians in the Western Church celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Christians have a different calendar, but we all celebrate essentially the same resurrection of Jesus Christ. This year, I am serving as in Interim Pastor of Peterborough United Methodist Church on 43 Concord Street in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and I invite you to participate in this online study again. We will have four levels of participation, as we did for Lent. It allows you to move at your own pace.
Last year we examined what Jesus accomplished in the 50 days following his resurrection. It is truly amazing to look at what he did, and it is chronicled well in the Book of Acts. Jesus literally changed the world. All you need to participate is a Bible. Let me know if you need one, I will get one to you.
For over 2000 years we denoted dates with either BC or AD (before and after Christ’s resurrection.) However, that nomenclature was changed in the twenty-first century to BCE and CE—which mean Before the Common Era, and After the Common Era. When I think about this I remember that Jesus included everyone in his ministry—and it is good for us to be inclusive, too. So this year I want to add examining our attitudes or perceptions on living in a pluralistic society. How can we create nurture Beloved Communities that honor each other even when we see the world with a different perspective? When I was preparing my sermon for Easter Sunday I experienced an epiphany that seemed to say: “How we look at a situation is critical—because cynicism is destroying our ability to communicate. Living on earth as in heaven does not mean we form groups that are cloistered. Jesus tells us to love even our enemy. How can we do this in 2018?”
In 2017, a group of us explored how Jesus’ divine healing transforms people and places so that they can live on earth as in heaven. In 2018, I would like to continue this exploration. I will invite people from my new Interim Church Assignment, too. If you would like to join, let me know. If you have friends that are interested, please invite them too. Last year we leaned heavily on Bishop Willimon’s book: Acts: Interpretation. It is available on Kindle and through Cokesbury or at Amazon. I will send brief daily messages that I will include on my web page prayactprayagain.org, on FaceBook and in an email. Are you up for deepening your spiritual adventure? Just email, text, message, or call me and let me know. I will also be looking for new material.
Christ has risen! Indeed, Christ has risen! Alleluia!
