How Long is Easter?

I learned a lesson during the children’s message a few weeks ago: Never underestimate kids. I gave them a one-question pop quiz and asked them how long Easter is, fully expecting them to say it’s only a day. After all, that’s a perfectly common response you would expect from most people. Instead, a number of them shouted, “Fifty Days!” Which, as it turns out, is the correct answer.

For centuries, Churches around the world have agreed that the season of Easter lasts for seven Sundays, culminating at the feast of Pentecost. This is why the linens decorating the communion table and lectern remain white, almost a month after Easter Sunday. It is why the pastors wear white stoles and we begin every service with a thanksgiving for baptism. Supermarkets sold out of chocolate bunnies weeks ago, but in churches around the world, it is still the Season of Resurrection. 

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that our kids have a decent grasp on the church calendar. The curriculum we use in Sunday School is tied to the same calendar, with lessons based on the readings we hear in worship. Every week, they begin their time together by examining the giant pie chart on the floor, pictured below. They talk about where we are in cycle of the year and visualize the rhythm of the Church. There is a chart just like it on the bulletin board in the hallway by the narthex, which you are welcome to examine any time you’re in the building.

During these fifty days of Easter, we focus a lot on resurrection. We hear stories about Jesus visiting the disciples after that fateful Sunday morning, as well as stories from Acts about the early church. Along with the decorations and prayers I mentioned earlier, the season has a decidedly distinct feel. But, here is something we don’t teach in Sunday school: Every Sunday of the year is a little Easter oasis. In fact, Easter itself is one of the reasons why we worship on Sunday to begin with.

In the middle of the second century, one of the earliest Christian theologians wrote about the relatively new idea of gathering for worship once a week. In his First Apology, meant to explain the budding religion, Justin Martyr wrote, “we hold this meeting together on the day of the sun since it is the first day, on which God, having transformed darkness and matter, made the cosmos. On the same day Jesus Christ our savior rose from the dead.”

When Easter is over, even next Lent when folks might feel the need to be introspective and dour, Sundays are days of Resurrection. On the first day of every week, we gather to remember the gift we have in God’s creation, celebrate the life we have been given, and hope for the life to come. And during the remainder of the week, the good news of Easter is the Good News that we share in everything we say and do as people who put our trust in Jesus Christ.

Peace,

Pastor Chad McKenna