When I think of Easter Sunday from when I was a little girl, I remember getting up early to get ready for church. My Mom would get my brother, sister, and I up with enough time to do a quick hunt for our Easter baskets containing the requisite chocolate bunny (although mine didn’t contain one because I have never been a huge fan of chocolate and really disliked it when I was younger. My poor mother had to search around for many years for a comparable non-chocolate substitute until I got older and told her it really didn’t matter to me) and seemingly endless jellybeans. Normally we would get a book as well.
Then we would quickly get dressed. I would be clothed in a new Easter dress with new shoes that usually hurt. A suitable spring hat and my own little plastic, shiny purse (to hold some offering), and perhaps a sweater were supposed to complete the outfit. But all too often, it it still felt like winter and sometimes there was still snow on the ground, so a winter coat would cover up the spring dress. My Mom would drive us to church, 2 minutes away. Our church at the time was located on the side of Mount Helena. There was a nice slope from the street above into the parking lot. It was a challenge every year to keep my little sister from heading to the top and sliding down in her frilly, girly dresses (that had previously been mine) and getting all messy before church. By the time church was over and there was visiting, my Mom usually had given up and allowed my sister to run up and slide down a couple times.
After a joyful worship and breakfast hosted by the high school youth, we would head home for an Easter egg hunt and spending the day together.
As I think back on those early, formative years, I now realize that getting new clothes on Easter is symbolic of the new life we experience in Jesus Christ. It was an opportunity to be “born anew” and to leave our old dirty burial rags behind in the tomb, while seeking to be “clothed with glory.”
This year though, this Easter, i invite you to come in person or online, no matter what you wear–whether it is new clothes, a hat, dirty gloves, ripped jeans, or your pajamas on the couch–to come and experience new life that can only be found in Christ. Join us as we leave behind our old past, and embrace new life in Christ. A new beginning awaits you. Come and see.
Peace,
Pastor Megan Graves, April 2021