The Great 50 Days After Easter (Week 1)

Scripture focus: Luke 15.32 “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

The Reverend Laurence Hull Stookey, in his book, This Day: A Wesleyan Way of Prayer, says, “What Easter celebrates is far too expansive to be confined to one day.  The church extends its message of joy across fifty days, embracing eight Sundays, starting with Easter and ending with Pentecost.”  Stookey claims as “Easter people” we are “called to accept this mystifying gift from God which we will experience as both astounding and transforming.” 

When I did a computer search for how many times the word “celebrate” is used in scripture, I found it appears only 68 times.  Interestingly only 6 of the 68 times are in the New Testament and 4 out of the 6 times are used when the father is explaining to the eldest son how important it is that his lost brother has been found.  Roberta Bondi in her book To Pray & to Love describes the love God has for all of creation as a “love that does not depend upon our ‘being good.’”  If we can begin to understand that, as Bondi says, “Sin does not destroy God’s love and yearning for us,” we can be truly the people of God who bring God’s resurrecting love into the world!  As we enter into these 50 days after Easter let us remember what a magnificent gift God poured into this world through the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord of Eternity,

On Easter Sunday, we sang, “Alleluia! Christ is Risen!”

We felt the joy of your loving spirit.

Help us please to embrace the next 50 days as “Easter People.”

Help us to place upon our hearts that we need to celebrate whenever someone lost is found.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.  Amen.

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