Power Points
April 24, 2011
Sunrise on Easter
On the one hand, there is nothing more common than a sunrise. It happens every day.
True, we don’t always see it because of cloud cover, but without it, there would be no day, only night.
On the other hand, there is nothing more spectacular and glorious than a sunrise. No two are exactly the same.
But there is something extra special about an Easter sunrise. We gather in community, in anticipation, and we celebrate our risen Lord!
We remember that Christ is risen, and as the sun rises over the horizon, it symbolizes the resurrection. It offers the hope of a new day in creation, a new life in Christ!
Someone put it this way, “I can almost see Christ rising as I watch the sun rise.”
Each year people gather on mountaintops and hillsides, in cemeteries and gardens, beside the ocean or a lake, and in our case we gather at Stockton Park on the St. John’s River.
We gather with the community of faith and perhaps a few who are faithless but seeking or just curious. We are led by the pastors of three local churches in worship and praise of the Living Lord Jesus Christ. We not only share the scriptures and hymns of our faith but also the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. We commune with God and nature, and we commune with the saints on earth and above.
For many years one of the first to arrive at the park to participate was Claire Morgan.This year she is enjoying the glory of her faith become sight, but she enjoyed a foretaste each Easter sunrise. So it was most appropriate that her son J. P. should be one of the scripture readers.
The closing verse to his reading was a familiar one especially to our Playschool students, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!”
Easter is a very special day, but every day is a day of resurrection when we live in Christ and Christ lives in us!