“Resurrection Evidence” Easter Season Series

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” (John 20:1, NRSVue)

What a wonderful Palm Sunday celebration we shared! My heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped make last Sunday’s cantata such an inspiring experience. Our adult choir, children’s choir, instrumentalists, and technical crew offered their talents with joy and dedication. I especially want to thank Linda May, our organist and Director of Music, for her exceptional leadership; Daniel Ritch, our Adult Choir Director, for his steady guidance and passion; and Megan Smith-Keenum, who helped lead our Children’s Choir with love and energy. The beauty of that service set a perfect tone for the week ahead leading into Easter.

As we approach Easter Sunday and the weeks afterward, I’m excited to invite you to our new sermon series, Resurrection Evidence. This series will guide us through the entire Easter season, from Easter Sunday, April 5, to Pentecost Sunday, May 24, and it encourages us to discover the living power of resurrection active among us today.

At the center of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, for many people, resurrection can seem mysterious or even difficult to understand. We can’t prove it in a laboratory or explain it scientifically, but evidence of resurrection is all around us. Just as Jesus said that the Spirit is like the wind—unseen yet recognized by what it moves—so we, too, can see resurrection through its effects. Whenever despair turns into hope, fear becomes courage, strangers form community, and broken lives are restored, the power of resurrection is at work.

We don’t have to look far to see that our world is full of uncertainty, division, and pain. Yet, because Christ is risen, we also live in a remarkable time of possibility. The risen Christ continues to breathe courage into weary hearts, kindle faith in the face of fear, and raise up new life where all hope seemed lost. This is resurrection happening in real time, in people’s lives everywhere.

During these Great Fifty Days from Easter to Pentecost, we will explore the stories of the first disciples and the early church. We will see how the resurrection transformed their lives, changed their communities, and empowered them with boldness and joy. We will also reflect on how those same signs of hope, courage, unity, and renewal continue to appear wherever God’s grace is active today.

My prayer is that during this Easter season, we not only celebrate the truth that Christ is risen, but also learn together how to practice resurrection in our own lives. May our faith, our words, and our actions serve as living evidence that Christ is alive and still transforming the world through love.

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday, and don’t forget to bring a friend!

P.S. Don’t forget to join us for the Maundy Thursday service at 6:00 p.m., where we remember the Last Supper, and for the Good Friday Tenebrae service at 7:00 p.m., focusing on the last statements of Jesus before his death.