"Easter Triumph, Easter Joy"

Alleluia!!! Christ is Risen!!!!

These are the most joyful words in the Christian vocabulary - they are the Truth that defines us and the mystery that every other event in the Christian liturgical year points to. Because Christ has risen from the dead, we need fear nothing. In the resurrection of our Lord, God proves once and for all that NOTHING can destroy love. It is a huge gift and a mystery that takes our entire lives to live into.

Because Easter is such a complex mystery, the Church takes the fifty days between Easter and the Day of Pentecost to ponder together what Christ's rising from the dead means for us. We hear accounts of the resurrection appearances to the disciples and we think about the sacraments so that we can discover how we are to live our lives as members of Christ's risen body. The Sundays between Easter and Pentecost tell a story and we invite you to bring your children to Church and Church School these next several Sundays to join us in the wondering and celebration.

Here are some thoughts from Joe Russell's The New Prayerbook Guide to Christian Education that will help you share the themes of Easter with your children at home:

- Jesus has risen from the dead. We have everlasting life because of Jesus' resurrection!

- God's love is stronger than death. Because of God's love, we do not have to be afraid to
die.

- Easter is about new life coming from what appears to be death and that new life is full of surprises and new possibilities.

- We receive Jesus' new life at our baptisms, and during the Easter season, we think about
what our baptisms mean in our lives.

I hope these themes help you talk easily with your children about what Easter means. Many families have Easter traditions that help make visible to their children the importance of the Easter message. I would love to hear how your family shares in the Good News of Easter. Please leave a comment and we can share how we tell the story of the Easter Triumph as families at Sudbury United Methodist Church!

Easter Blessings,

Elizabeth