Easter Keeping Ideas 2020
Blessings to each and every one of you who are walking with us to the cross and beyond this Lenten season. Easter is around the corner and how different it will be this year for us all. Lent 2020 was infused with fears and threats of coronavirus all across the globe. We will remember this time for the rest of our lives. While our normal celebrations change for Easter, our daily spiritual reality as people beloved of Christ does not. Easter is a part of our everyday existence as people who follow, love and are loved by Jesus.
We extended an invitation to share your Easter plans with us, and we have compiled these ideas, adding some suggestions as well. The point of celebration festivities and time taken to reflect on the miracle of a risen, loving, forgiving and inviting God, is to let God’s gift of faith infuse our fears, inoculating us from the devastating and paralyzing effects of fear’s grip on our LIFE! “Let my joy be in you that you may …” Here are some good rituals and fun activities you might consider.
EASTER CELEBRATION IDEAS:
- Before dawn, invite the TRUE LIGHT who is Jesus the Christ into your day. Light a candle, or maybe even a small fire in the fire pit. The soldiers were up all night guarding the tomb to make sure no one could steal Jesus body. The power of God removed every barrier to the explosion of joy. It can and does for us too. While I suggested “inviting the Light”, remember and acknowledge this reality as well: Jesus comes without invitation. And He, as Alpha and Omega, does the inviting, from start to finish!
- At the break of dawn, use these ancient greetings to one another, face to face and eye to eye (or virtually) the following:
Speaker One: “He is Risen!”
Speaker Two: “He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!”
- Walk in nature and see all the signs of new life tucked away for a season and now bursting forth. Collect tokens of the signs that communicate this good gift to you, place them by a cross or in a central place in your home, and offer thanks. How about this for a prayer: “THANKS. Awesome.”
- Eat your breakfast (breaking your fast) letting the joy of Easters past fill your heart. We must take time to ponder to actually remember! This practice can really double your joy. (If you watched the newest movie of Mr. Rogers you will recall he had a practice of daily remembering everyone who “loved him into existence”). Contemplate the joy of Easters yet to come: face to face with God and everyone we have ever loved that are now in Christ. Your table will be filled with the very real “community of saints” and the presence of Kingdom of God will reveal itself. You are not alone. Martin Luther suggested when we say the Lord’s Prayer, we remember when we say “Amen” (let it be so), we do so with all the company of saints, throughout all time. Let your amen on Easter grow!
- You might cook something grandma always made, or your mom or dad put on the table. These remembrances will help you live in gratitude. What if you decided to try a new tradition from another culture as a way of extending your awareness of “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” Ephesian 3:18? Your family of faith is quite diverse! This is one way to honor Jesus. He loves and treasured us all and wants us to follow suit, just like a parent wants a child to love their siblings.
- Sing a song. Together if possible! If you do a zoom meeting with friends and family, do use the Easter greeting. Do try and sing for one another. If you prefer, play a song on YouTube. Here are some great links:
https://youtu.be/YuMh_ept-Js (a hymn with lyrics for country western fans)
Share your favorites with friends of the parish!
- Hymn books were often used to lift the spirit. If you want a hymnal, the words to Easter hymns being so great for prayer, we have some old ones we can gift to you. Let us know and we will place them out on Good Friday at Peace’s door.
- Think of a way to share with others: Make a dish for someone, or an Easter treat and drop it off at their door with a card saying “He is Risen”.
- Have your kids make cards for the neighbor or their friends and drop them off with a prayerful spirit, asking God to “bless and keep” them. Add Scripture if you feel so inclined. Feel free to use words from the prayer at the end of Ephesians 3.
- Make a picnic for the early morning watch.
- Try a Seder meal tonight (Maundy Thursday). There are lots of instructions and examples on line.
- Find a family tradition and adapt it in some way. One person is remembering her grandparents by playing the piano, remembering her grandma who used to place an Easter basket under the very same bench when she was a child. I’m sure she is thinking of the gift of music that her parents also supported.
- Include your animals in the festivities as was suggested by one person grateful for her dog during the time of social isolation. She is doing an “Easter Treat Hunt” for the family dog. She will “hide” one treat in each room of the house and likely giggle as he delights in each discovery.
- Did you think about making a craft of some type?
- Here is a link for an origami Easter basket: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wyAhfsd2PL0
- Here is one for an origami Easter lily: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uqGG48FJA30
- Here is a good one: How about just sitting around and doing nothing for an hour or more … recognizing your freedom to do so comes from Jesus. We are set free from fear! It’s a good time to celebrate this reality.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”. Galatians 5:1.
We are praying for you all. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
We are TOGETHER.
Pastor Gretchen for the pastoral team