Resurrecting Easter

On Easter afternoon, my niece said to me as she scrolled through social media on her phone “Tio – I think everyone in El Salvador is at the beach today. My whole feed is just beach photos.” On Friday, my own newsfeed was filled with photos of the alfombras and processions in El Salvador as most of the country took to the streets to honor the ultimate sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus with his death on the cross. But for many Latinos, Holy Week ends on Friday. Easter Sunday is just another Sunday. A day off to go to the beach.

That has been a challenge of mine as Lutheran pastor trying to bring energy to our Easter worship. If we only worship on Good Friday, we are missing the central part of what makes us Christians. Christ’s resurrection brings the promise of eternal life. Without Easter, Jesus is just another martyr.

It has been especially challenging for me at Ascension for a couple of reasons. Imagine walking in to attend Spanish worship and the glorious 8:30 English worship with choir, handbells, brass and crowds to the welcome center is just wrapping up. Then you attend Spanish worship that is trying to be special, but still basically the same as any other Sunday. It can feel deflating. The other challenge, our Latino ministries created for ourselves. Our Good Friday procession and worship has become a deeply meaningful worship service with the alfombras. How do we top that two days later?

It has been a gradual process over the years. First we added the Easter alfombras – a Lutheran theological twist on the tradition of the alfombras that reminds us that in spite of the destruction of the Good Friday, Sunday brings restoration. I knew the message was beginning to get through when some of our members took it upon themselves to create a new tradition of wearing all white on Easter. With six years of people gradually learning some Easter songs and the addition of song leaders thanks to Scott Greger and Marta Aparicio, I was hopeful that this year we would have some joyful moments of worship, but I knew it still wasn’t enough to lead up to the level of emotion equal to Las Posadas or the Good Friday procession.

With my wife, this year we decided to borrow a typical Midwestern Lutheran tradition to enliven our Latino Easter by hosting an Easter breakfast with an opportunity for photos with the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny is not a tradition in our countries, so he usually does not visit the homes of many of our Spanish speaking children. When they go back to school and other kids are talking about what the Easter Bunny brought them, now our Spanish speaking kids have a story of meeting the Easter Bunny at church, so they don’t have to feel left out. The families all had a great time with their photos. The energy from the breakfast carried into our worship. 

I had one other Latino tradition I wanted to incorporate this year. Called huevo chimbo in Central America, cascarones in Mexico, or confetti eggs in English, I wanted to incorporate these eggs in my children’s sermon. I mentioned it to Pastor Chris, and he told me he had the same idea and had already ordered enough for all of the church services.

This year, for the first time, I left church feeling satisfied that our Latino worshippers left church feeling the joy we want everyone to experience on Easter as we celebrate the resurrection. In fact, they may have left with too much joy since many had their laughter hushed as they were interrupting the English service, but that is a problem I am happy to have. 

A pastor from another church asked me on Good Friday if we didn’t worry about the mess made by the sawdust from the alfombras. I assured her it didn’t really make a mess. I thought of that conversation looking around at the church on Easter after worship – now that was a mess. A big beautiful mess of confetti everywhere. A member told that family member that worshiped with them for the first time that day, “This is a NOISY church.” 

May the joy you feel this Easter season be so overflowing that is beautiful in its noisiness and messiness.

¡Él ha resucitado! ¡Aleluya!

Pastor Edwin

The Gift of Resurrection

In March, I preached in Spanish on the Gospel of Luke (13:6-9). These verses tell the story of the fig tree that bears no fruit. The landowner had planted a fig tree in his vineyard, and when the supposed harvest time arrived, he arrived at the land and realized the plants hadn’t produced any fruit. The landowner had confidence and hope that the plants would produce good fruit, but when he arrived at the land, he realized the plants on their branches didn’t have the fruit he expected.

This story made me think about these questions: What kind of fruit did the landowner expect? What caused the plants not to produce fruit? Could a pest have arrived and contaminated the plants? Were the roots weak? Could an intruder have arrived and stolen the fruit? What happened?

The wonderful thing about this story is the appearance of a gardener who pleaded for the plants and promised to take care of them. The gardener will not leave the plant’s salvation to chance. The gardener will do everything possible to remove the bad soil. The gardener will ensure that the plant receives the necessary water and fertilizer to strengthen its roots. The gardener’s intervention is what made the plants’ salvation possible.

During Holy Week, we hear, experience, and reflect on the work, agony, death, and gift of resurrection we received from this merciful, compassionate gardener who intervened, intervenes, and will continue to intervene for all of us. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” This gardener not only came to save us but has also provided us with the tools we need to bear fruit in our lives. In John 6:35, our gardener tells us, “Whoever drinks of the water I give him will never thirst. The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The gardener completed his mission and has given us the gift of eternal life. In Matthew 17:23, Jesus says, “The Son of Man will be handed over to the powers of this world, and they will kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.” On Sunday morning, a group of women went to the tomb and found it empty. The fulfillment of the promise of the resurrection had arrived. “He is not there, He has risen, hallelujah!

Sisters and brothers, the gardener has brought us and given us a new way of seeing life. Even if some powers of this world harm us, intimidate us, persecute us, humiliate us, make us sick, increase our anxiety, that is not the end. Now we live in the sure hope of the resurrection. Death no longer has power over us, not because of what I do, but because of what the gardener has done for us!

Happy season of resurrection!

Pastor Edwin 

Preparing for the Beauty of Holy Week

While we just celebrated Ash Wednesday, preparations for Holy Week at Ascension are already underway. In the Latino Ministry, we have begun coloring sawdust to prepare our traditional alfombras for Good Friday. During Journey to the Cross, families began the first alfombra.

Some of you have asked me where all that large amount of sawdust comes from. Sawdust is not just from one place, last month, I had to visit Bliffert, Waukesha, Home Depot, Waukesha and Bliffert, Germantown. We have enough material to make all of the alfombras for this year. The sawdust that those stores collect is put in the trash, but for the month of February, they invite us to use and do wonders with material that is normally garbage. I showed them photographs of last year’s alfombras. They said, “Wow! Thank you for inviting us to be part in some way in this project!” Yes, everyone is invited to participate in some way in the alfombras during Holy Week.

In previous years, I have colored all the sawdust by myself. This year CRASH students were invited to experience the colorization of sawdust. The students really enjoyed it and learned a new skill. This was not only a time of work, but it was also a time for fellowship, sharing and continuing to learn about what Ascension is and what God is doing in our multicultural Christian community.

As we continue to walk this Lenten journey, let’s think about God’s call to us to pass the good news to others. In Holy week, we invite you to participate in our Good Friday procession. We will start our procession from the three crosses in the memorial garden. We will lower the cross and the participants will be able to pass the cross to the people who will carry it on our trip to the tomb (Latino Sanctuary). In the sanctuary, we will, as always, have the experience of walking and experiencing how the beauty of the carpets disappears.

The beauty of the savior living among us dies, but that is not the end. Three days later, beauty returns never to disappear from our lives. Jesus continues to reveal the beauty of the kingdom of heaven here on earth through us and others. We are invited to spread the message of the kingdom of God from where we are.

May God open your eyes this Lenten season to help you find the beauty of the kingdom of heaven in your lives.

Pastor Edwin