This coming Sunday, April 17 begins Holy Week, the observance of our Lord's final week and passion preceding his resurrection. This year it also coincides with the festival of Passover, which falls on April 19--of course because it is a Jewish observance, it begins at sundown the evening prior. I have been thinking a lot about these great celebrations of the faith for a lot of reasons this year, not least of which is my new friendship with Rabbi Cliff Librach of United Jewish Center in Danbury. That friendship has been a great surprise and blessing. I have learned much from the good rabbi and my life personally has been enriched. (By the way, Rabbi Cliff will be back again to teach enrichment classes on the Hebrew Bible on three Wednesdays in May--4th, 11th, 25th) But let me get back to my reflections on Holy Week. This year at Wellspring we will have our annual observance of Maundy Thursday at 7:00 pm on Thursday, April 21. Pastor Joel Shirk will minister to us that evening as we prepare to gather around the Lord's Table to remember our Lord's sacrifice for our salvation. The word "maundy" is from a Latin root that is similar in meaning to our English word "mandate." Jesus mandates us to observe his table and remember him. Let me remind you that Jesus did this as he was celebrating Passover with his disciples. We believe that his death on the cross for our salvation is the fulfillment of the Passover when God delivered his people Israel from Egypt. It is a perpetual festival, called in Leviticus "the Lord's Passover." In other words, it is not simply Israel's Passover--it is the Lord's festival that is now opened for us to celebrate in the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God, Jesus, for our forgiveness and liberation from sin. Then on Resurrection Weekend, Saturday@5 and at both Sunday morning services we will celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead. This mighty act of God serves as the vindication of Jesus' obedience and is his triumph over sin, death and hell that he makes available to all of us who believe. We are using the term, Resurrection Weekend, both because we now have a Saturday evening service--and also because we are seeking at Wellspring to move beyond the term "Easter." Why, you are probably asking, would we want to move beyond using a term that has been traditional and is on everyone's calendar? Good question. Two reasons are predominant. Number one, "Easter" is at root a pagan term and is associated with an ancient germanic goddess "Eostra." All of the essentially pagan associations with Easter that have to do with the spring equinox, like eggs and bunnies and flowers and butterflies, are caught up in this term which speaks of the pagan rites of the renewal of nature. Resurrection is the transcendent victory of Jesus over the forces of this fallen world. It is not about nature--it is about the breaking in of the supernatural dimension of the Kingdom of God to accomplish salvation and renewal of this fallen planet. Secondly, "Easter" speaks not only of syncretism with paganism, it also represents a divorce of the festival from its Jewish roots. At the first Council of Nicea, the church convened under the direction of Emperor Constantine. Among other things, at that council they established a separate reckoning for setting the date of Easter. In large part this was motivated by an express desire to separate Easter from its Passover roots. Constantine wrote in the letter calling for action: It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews . . . For their boast is absurd indeed, that it is not in our power without instruction from them to observe these things. The specific issue had to do with when and how to "set the date" for Easter in the church. At that council the church moved formally to de-link the festival of resurrection from Passover--motivated by overt anti-Semitism. Yet Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples in preparation for the cross to provide salvation for Jew and Gentile alike. For some of you this may seem like a minor detail. But Ephesians tells us that God's desire is for a united humanity of Jew and Gentile to come together in Messiah Jesus. Institutional anti-Semitism in the church has for centuries warred against this express desire of God and it needs to be addressed and rooted out of the church. At Wellspring this year we are doing two things to contribute to that end. First, we are speaking of this highest celebration on our spiritual calendar as Resurrection Weekend--not Easter. Secondly, at our Maundy Thursday service, when we gather to observe the covenantal meal Jesus gave us from the Passover Seder we will repent of the de-linking of "the Lord's Passover" from the celebration of our Lord's resurrection. I will lead in that prayer of repentance and we will give all of you an opportunity to "sow into" that repentance in an offering we will receive with which to bless the United Jewish Center in Danbury. I plan to carry this offering to present to Rabbi Cliff and his congregation on Friday, April 29 when I preach there at their Sabbath service. You are all invited by Rabbi Librach to attend those services, by the way, and I hope many of you will come to pray for me and to release blessing upon those folks on that evening. (You can go to www.unitedjewishcenter.org for more details.) Shalom and Resurrection blessings to you all--the Lord is risen indeed! Pastor Rick