What a Difference a Year Makes--Or Does It?

 

Last year at this time there were no in-person Easter services or congregational Easter breakfast and my choir was on hiatus. This year was still off. As with last year, there was no Easter breakfast at church. The choir didn’t sing an anthem because our director is recovering from a serious case of COVID-19. But things have improved. We had in-person services and the choir participated by singing a couple of hymn verses.

COVID restrictions are still in place, and I’m not sure what effect they had on attendance. You can see from the photo that family groups are still socially distanced from other family groups and the section on the left-hand side is masked for the entire service. (Everyone is required to wear masks to and from their seats, but the other sections can remove them during the service.) In former times, all of the seats would have been filled at this particular service on Easter instead of having the empty pews in between.

But the real meaning of Easter was the same two years ago and last year and this year and forever. Easter and every other Sunday (and every day) reminds us that Christ died and rose for sinners like us. Like me. As it says in Romans 5:8-11 (NIV):

⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

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I took the picture from the choir loft at the 9:30 a.m. service during the sermon I was hearing for the third time.