This Sunday in Easter Worship

Dear Grace Family,

This week I was watching the Today Show and they had Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, as their guest. I have seen Cardinal Dolan on the Today Show before and I always enjoy watching him. He has such a positive spirit that he projects to the world and often has some wonderful words of wisdom to share. This year I heard two important things to remember at Easter.

Cardinal Dolan was asked how he felt when he looked out on Easter Sunday to see all the people that are only in church twice a year. The Cardinal said, “I am so glad they are there.” He tells that to the people in worship on Easter. He doesn’t make them feel guilty; he just welcomes them to church and invites them to come back if they enjoy the worship. On Sunday we will likely have twice as many people in worship than other Sundays of the year. Some of them may even sit in your seat. The proper response is not “You’re in my spot!” It is “Happy Easter! I am glad you are here!” Let’s overwhelm everyone with our “Grace Hospitality” this Sunday.

The second question posed to Cardinal Dolan was about the meaning of Easter. He said that the message of Easter is not about faith. Statistics show that 95% of people around the world have faith or believe in God (not sure where he gets his statistics, but I will go with them). Hope is different than faith. Hope says that we not only believe in God, but that God is faithful to us. Hope says that no matter what we are going through, there is new life on the other side. The cross does not get the final word; the empty tomb does. We need hope to face the difficult times in life.

I am excited to celebrate the hope of Easter with you this Sunday. We will have three worship services. Traditional worship will be in the Celebration Center at 9:00 and 10:30 AM. Common Grace is a modern worship that will be held at 10:15 AM in Grace Gathering. Last Easter we had over 600 people at the 9:00 service. It was hard to find a seat. The weather could be pretty rainy this year and impact in person attendance on Sunday, but the later traditional worship typically is less crowded. About 250 people attended the later traditional worship last year. It is easier to find both a parking space and a seat at the 10:30.. I share that information simply so you can make an informed decision on where to worship on Easter Sunday. Wherever you choose to attend, I promise you will be blessed by a message of hope at Grace UMC.

See you in worship!

Barry

Each Tuesday Pastor Mitch publishes a devotion on his website Weeklydevotion.com.  If you’d like to receive this in your inbox, drop him an email at   and just say “Sign me up!”