March / April 2026 Newsletter

A New Start – Easter Is Coming!

As we journey through the final days of our forty day Lenten season, our hearts are turning toward the joy of Easter morning. On April 5th, we will gather to proclaim the greatest good news the world has ever known: Christ is risen!

Matthew tells us that early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb (Matthew 28:1–10). What they expected to find was death and finality.  Instead, they encountered an empty tomb, a messenger from heaven, and the astonishing announcement: “He is not here; for he has been raised.”

In that moment, everything changed. Fear turned into joy. Mourning turned into hope. The end they expected became a new beginning. Easter is God’s declaration that death does not have the last word. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God gives the world and each of us a new start.

During these forty days of Lent, we have walked a spiritual journey together. Lent invites us to slow down, reflect, confess, and open our hearts to God. It is a season of preparing ourselves not by striving harder, but by learning something deeper: the gift of receiving.

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples. John tells us that Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Just as God breathed life into humanity in the beginning, the risen Christ breathed new life into his followers. The Spirit was not something they could earn or manufacture. It was a gift to receive.

And that gift was never meant for only a few. In the book of Acts, when Peter was speaking in the home of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit fell upon everyone who heard the message (Acts 10:44–46). The Spirit was poured out freely—across boundaries, across backgrounds, across every dividing line.

The same invitation is extended to us today.

Easter is not only a celebration of something that happened long ago. It is a living promise that the risen Christ is still breathing new life into his people. The same Spirit given to the disciples… the same Spirit poured out in Acts… is the Spirit God longs for us to receive today.

As we approach Easter Sunday, may we come with open hearts. Let us lay down what burdens us, release what we cannot carry, and make room for the life God desires to give.

This Easter, let us receive anew—
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And as we receive, may the resurrection of Jesus Christ become for each of us what it was for those first witnesses at the tomb:

A New Start.

I look forward to celebrating the joy of Easter with you.

Halleluiah He is Risen,

Pastor Amy

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