From Pastor Sarah

Thinking about Easter yet? So am I.

Hello, Bay Shore!

Are you thinking about your Easter plans yet?

Of course, as a pastor, I know where I will be. But I still have to carve time out for the added details that make up the Easter holiday—family coming in, brunch reservations, dry cleaning some clothes, you know what I mean.

But Easter is not just a “holy day.” Easter really is a full week, a holy week. It begins on Sunday, April 13, with Palm Sunday (9:30 am), continues on Maundy Thursday (6:30 pm), Good Friday with its passion story (noon), and then a glorious Easter Morning (9:30 am).

This year, we are truly journeying with Jesus through Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, we will focus on Jesus entering Jerusalem and the events that led to the morning of the Last Supper. On Maundy Thursday, we will delve deeply into the Last Supper (and why we have communion because of it), and on Good Friday (honestly the least attended worship service we have, but truly one of the most important….), we will hear the entire passion story from John’s perspective and leave the church just as Jesus’ followers left his tomb.

My friends, you can’t have Easter without the events of Holy Week. Well, I guess you could—but you’re missing a lot.

I strongly encourage you all to carve time out in your schedules for our Holy Week services this year. Journey with Jesus. Learn or re-remember what led to that tomb being occupied by God’s Son. Re-live how it felt having YOUR first communion. Pause and sit on a day that is “Good.”

And parents, Holy Week is good for children, too. There is more movement and music in these special services, we have recently added a prayground in the back of the sanctuary for those littles who need to move, and I encourage the creation of “church bags”—special bags filled with books and quiet activities, only available to your children during church.

I know we all love Christmas—I know.

But, we are Christians because of Easter. And we have Easter because of what Jesus said and did during “holy week.”

May God bless you and your loved ones,

Pastor Sarah