One year I went on vacation after Christmas. Since I wasn’t going into the office, I decided that I wasn’t going to shave. By the end of the vacation time, I decided that I still wasn’t going to shave. The season of Epiphany came and went, and then we got into Lent, and by the end of Lent I decided that I was getting a little tired of the beard. So before worship on Easter Sunday, I shaved it off. This then became my own little tradition – grow the beard from vacation to Easter, and then spend the rest of the time clean shaven.
Likely the one surprising thing for me every Easter is the amount of people who don’t notice. I mean, there are plenty of people who do, but there are other people that see me the next Sunday and exclaim “you shaved!” and “I didn’t notice last Sunday.” Clearly, to them, there are other things about my face that matter more.
I bring this up not because anyone should care about my beard, really, but because I think it might serve as a metaphor for how we live in the Easter season. Since Advent we have been building to this moment, the absolute zenith of the Church Year, Easter. On Easter we celebrate what Christ came to do and that the Resurrection proves His accomplishment of His work. From “it is finished” to “He is risen” we have a great reason for celebration.
But sometimes, I think we just let Easter come and go, perhaps not even noticing it that much. Yet the whole reason that we celebrate Easter (and the rest of the church year) is to give some timeliness to our discipleship. Advent calls us to prepare for Jesus, the 12 days of Christmas call us to celebrate His arrival and incarnation into our world, Epiphany calls us to reflect on getting the news out about Him, Lent calls us to deepen our faith through discipline and reflection – and now Easter season is upon us. In this season we celebrate and revel in the new life we have been given.
Our upcoming sermon series is called “Reanimated,” and our goal will be to show how the power that raised Jesus Christ from the tomb is at work in us now – reanimating us with the Spirit of God. Unlike facial hair, this is definitely something we should notice and be aware of. So join us this coming Easter season (all the way to Pentecost on May 24) as we hear how God is reanimating us through His Word and His Sacraments!