Contrary to popular opinion, the Easter season does not end on Easter Sunday but rather continues for seven weeks. This is the time in our Christian calendar we remember and celebrate the risen Christ spending time with his followers preparing them for his ascension which concludes the season. Pentecost begins the move from Easter season to  ‘Ordinary’ time and the church season of waiting, watching, and actively living into the hope that Christ will return.

Easter season is about embracing that we are a people of the Resurrection. It is acknowledging that God’s power, which raised Jesus from the dead, resides in each of us this moment. This Easter season the Lectionary epistle passages are from the book of 1 Peter which is a  letter to a group of churches in Asia Minor facing uncertainty. There was pressure from outside and confusion from within. The apostle Peter addresses this head-on by reminding the people that this life is filled with important, vital, and yet temporal moments. He reminds them that their true hope is firmly in the hands of the risen Christ who can be trusted with eternity as well as today. The call is for the people to remain strong in this hope and to carry on in the face of whatever may be swirling.

Preaching the 1 Peter Easter season texts were chosen months ago without regard to what was happening in the world. You may call that a coincidence.  I call it God’s grace.

Let me invite you to read through First and Second Peter over the next few weeks. I’ll be preaching on Sunday through the following passages in First Peter.

April 19 – 1 Peter 1:3-9

April 26 – 1 Peter 1:17-23

May 3 – 1 Peter 2:19-25

May 10 – 1 Peter 2:2-10

May 17 – 1 Peter 3:13-22

May 25 – 1 Peter 4:12–14, 5:6–11