Waiting for the Feast: 2024 Easter Series Roadmap

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“See, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
–Isaiah 25:6-9

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is "timing"
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”
― Fulton J. Sheen

The fulfillment of a long-held hope can be startling and unsettling. When you receive what you have asked for, it may arrive unexpectedly. Elements may even be unwelcomed or disappointing. You may not have even recognized that the events before you are associated with the promise coming to fruition. Rather than celebration, you respond with doubt, questions, and fear.

Imagine being a person in the world experiencing the resurrection of Jesus Christ in real time. You have no framework or context to help you. You may, or may not, have been taught the prophetic promises of a coming messiah, but that vision has been garbed in the garments of war, military dominance, and conquest of reclaimed territory. The person who might be the one you’ve hoped for has just been executed by the state. Only…there are accounts circulating that he is not dead. You may be one of the early witnesses who has seen his person or heard his voice or touched his scars. You know, and it still seems impossible to imagine. Like Mary when she heard the invitation of the angel to participate in the incarnation, you may ask the question, “How can this be?”

From the pain of your grief, you may decide the “how” does not matter. It’s the “why” that carries the significance. The why is an amazing and relentless love that refuses to abandon humanity or any part of creation to destruction and despair. The why is a covenant that will be kept no matter the cost to the Sovereign One who set the terms. The why is the hope of beloved community, harmony in creation, and the reign of God on earth. The why is a promise made repeatedly throughout the biblical narrative and captured specifically in the words of Isaiah 25.

It is time to rejoice and be glad. You’ve been waiting for the feast.

March 31, 2024 (Resurrection Sunday): Mark 16:1-8 | Terror and Amazement
April 7, 2024: John 20:19-31 | Peace Be With You
April 14, 2024: Luke 24:36b-48 | Witnesses of These Things
April 21, 2024: John 10:11-18 | Power to Lay It Down
April 28, 2024: John 15:1-8 | Much Fruit
May 5, 2024: John 15:9-17 | Chosen and Appointed
May 12, 2024:Luke 24:44-53 | Fulfilled
May 19, 2024 (Pentecost Sunday): John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 | In the World

“Easter is…
Joining in a birdsong,
Eying an early sunrise,
Smelling yellow daffodils,
Unbolting windows and doors,
Skipping through meadows,
Cuddling newborns,
Hoping, believing,
Reviving spent life,
Inhaling fresh air,
Sprinkling seeds along furrows,
Tracking in the mud.
Easter is the soul’s first taste of spring.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves as a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities.