May 1, 2022
“You shall count seven weeks…” Deuteronomy 16:9
Easter – it seems to come and go quickly. We celebrate Palm Sunday, remember the meal in the Upper Room and carry the cross on Good Friday. Sunday morning comes and we roll the stone away, marveling and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. We eat the chocolate bunnies and jelly beans, the leftover ham and rainbow eggs, and then put away the egg dyes and colored grass for another year. As the sun sets, we put Easter away for another year; but the truth is - our Easter celebration should just be starting!
Easter Sunday begins the celebration of the Great 50 Days! This period is “a week of weeks” (seven days times 7 weeks = 49 days) that culminates with the celebration of Pentecost (meaning 50!), the birthday of the church. This stems from seven meaning “fullness or completion.” (Remember, God created everything, including a day of rest, in just seven days!)
In ancient Jewish tradition, the season of pentecost was the time of the spring barley harvest that began just after the start of Passover. It also became known as the “Feast of Weeks.”
Rev. Dr. Larry Stookey writes, “Fifty also came to be a number of sacred meaning.” Leviticus 25 talks about a “Year of Jubilee” every fifty years (yes, this is the source of our term, “Golden Jubilee”!) It is a time of restoration, a time of freedom, a time for great joy.
Our time for great joy, our Great Fifty Days, begins with the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It continues as we commemorate Christ’s Ascension into heaven, generally forty days after the tomb was found empty, and climaxes with Pentecost where we recall the gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus as they gathered, once again, in an Upper Room.
This year, it is our hope to have our birthday party for the Church, and honor our graduates, outside on Sunday, June 5, 2022, at 10:00 am. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate! Anyway, mark your calendars and come join us as we wrap up the Great Fifty Days of Easter, and gather as a community of the Spirit to celebrate the birthday of the Church!
God’s Blessings,
Pastor Laura
PS. Let’s make it a potluck: we’ll bring chicken and birthday cake!
PPS. It might seem out of season, but what are your favorite Christmas hymns/carols? Text, email, or tell me Sunday. I want to know!