Fifty Days of Easter? You Must Be Kidding!

American Christians are pretty much oriented to one-day celebrations. We celebrate Christmas for one day and Easter for one day. That Christmas is twelve days and Easter is fifty days are factoids, but not our lived experience. We who plan worship — clergy, musicians, and other worship specialists — know the theology and recognize that the lectionary and calendar (see United Methodist Book of Worship, 224, 232-233, 269, 368) provide for extended celebration of the incarnation and the Resurrection. But when it comes to actually living out the season over a period of days and weeks, we excuse ourselves from it, claiming that the people just won't understand. True, they don't, and they won't without your strong leadership and commitment to doing so.

There are a few approaches that might help us to "get down" and countercultural in celebrating the Great Fifty Days.

First, we who plan and lead might enter more fully into the deep waters of our baptism and of the joyful contemplation of the mysteries of Easter in all it fullness. Pseudo-Macarius (a fourth century monk and favorite of John Wesley) wrote:
When God created Adam, [God] did not furnish [us] with material wings as birds have, but [God] prepared for [us] the wings of the Holy Spirit. The same [God] plans on giving [us] at the resurrection, to lift [us] and direct [us] wherever the Spirit wishes. These wings the saints already now are deemed worthy to possess to fly up mentally to the realm of heavenly thoughts.

For Christians live in another world, eat from another table, are clothed differently, prefer different enjoyment, different dialogue, and a different mentality…. This power already they are considered worthy to enjoy in their souls through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, also in the resurrection their bodies will be worthy to receive those eternal blessings of the Holy Spirit.
(Adapted for inclusive language from Pseudo-Macarius: the Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, edited and translated by George A. Maloney, p. 74.)

"These wings the saints already now possess" so that we can "fly up mentally" to inhabit the wonder and grace of Easter and of the new creation. What will your life as a planner and leader of liturgical prayer be from now to Pentecost? Do you have a plan for your own reading and prayer that will allow you to "fly up mentally" to "seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1)?

Consider praying the daily office for the Great Fifty Days. Here are some sources and possibilities:

• Between Sundays: Daily Bible Readings Based on the Revised Common Lectionary by Gail Ramshaw
• The Daily Office: A Book of Hours for Daily Prayer(Volume Three: The Great Fifty Days) published by the Order of Saint Luke

See these online resources:

• Resources for Daily LectionaryReadings
• Praying the Hours

Second, we can relax and rest in the wisdom and particularity of the readings of the Revised Common Lectionary. One of the fears we have of feasting for fifty days is that it will wear us out! We fear that we will overdose on "Alleluia Pie" and run out of adrenaline by about week three! If we heed the Spirit in reading and following the lectionary, we discover a deeper rhythm and flow for each Sunday and find that Easter has many moods. As Fred Craddock sometimes asks, "How loud should a sermon be?" Sometimes worship is a veritable shout, but sometimes it is a whisper or an intense, but quiet standing on tiptoe to see what is over the horizon. Sometimes it is wondering what kind of church we are compared to the earliest community in Jerusalem (e.g., 4th Sunday, Year A, Acts reading). Sometimes it is as silent and wonderful as the sound of branches growing out of the vine and bearing fruit (e.g., 5th Sunday, Year C, Gospel reading). Sometimes it is "flying up mentally" to see the new heaven and the new earth — God's new creation — all finished and wondering at what we might be doing now to mirror that coming reality in our lives (e.g., 5th Sunday, Year C, Revelation 21 reading). What hymns you will sing, how you will pray, the intensity of the "alleluias" you speak will be determined by the brooding of the Spirit and the wings you possess out of your own reading, prayerful reflection, and careful advanced planning.

Third, focus on your congregation. Who is worshiping? To whom are you preaching? What has their attention in daily life? Where are there resonances with that "other world" always present but not always attended to as your people drive, go to school, make love, plan their sales calls, watch the evening news, and deal with crying children? What does the new heaven and the new earth mean to them? What does bearing fruit ask of them? What does "devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers" invite them to practice in the "realm of heavenly thoughts"?

Neither worship nor daily living is about being so heavenly minded that the church is no earthly good! How will you plan worship and other practices during the Great Fifty Days so that your people's hearts and lives are ordered by the means of grace? Will the liturgy help people to live in this world as if they are in touch with another one? For example, take a look at the 21st Century Africana Liturgy Resources. Can you make use of these or model prayers for your assembly that have a similar here-and-now energy about them?

One further consideration around focus: Were any baptized at Easter? Were any confirmed? The ancient church focused on those folk when it came to preaching in the days and weeks after Easter. Imagine preaching for the Sundays of Easter to three-month-old Jessica and letting the congregation "overhear" the sermon addressed to her. Or let the congregation "overhear" the sermons to the twenty-six-year-old graduate student who was baptized and the six youth who were confirmed. The ancient church spent this time unpacking what had happened to them, exploring the experience of the water, the laying on of hands and the anointing, the renunciation and profession of faith (see, The United Methodist Hymnal, pages 33-39). They called it mystagogy— exploring the mysteries of being joined to Christ and his mission through the sacraments. If you are going to be confirming a group of youth and adults on Pentecost, you could prepare the sermons for them and invite the congregation to pray for them, even lay hands on them each week as you approach the day. As a visual reminder of baptism and profession of faith in response to God's grace in baptism, be sure the font remains in a prominent place. You might even preach at and around the font to stay on focus. Start at the font every week with some reminder that we assemble as those who start their journey in and with Christ in the waters of baptism.

So you have fifty days! Eight weeks for dancing and playing around the new creation! Give yourself, for the sake of the people, to sustained exercise of "the wings of the Holy Spirit" and "be lifted and directed wherever the Holy Spirit wishes."

Read more from Discipleship Ministries about the Easter Season.