# Twenty Four Easter Services:



## seawings (Aug 28, 2004)

Easter morning the sun rose over Kiribati Island in the South Pacific, making this small archipelago of islands the first to celebrate Easter services. As the sun rose in the East and raced westward across the twenty four different time zones more and more would celebrate Easter services.  

Like a tsunami, Easter services would be powerfully repeated in each time zone, by thousands of churches from pole to pole with&#8230;opening prayers, stirring hymns (imagine what all those voices sound like), sermons from thousands of pulpits on hope and promises, and closing prayers. The theme would have been almost universally consistent, the Resurrection. Throughout the world the dawn of Easter morning marked the celebration of the triumph of life over death, as we affirm our faith in the resurrection of Jesus 

The triumph of Jesus over death assures us that our world will make sense in the long run, even if it sometimes seems to be spinning out of control. The march of history will not end in some cruel joke, even if along the way there are tragic detours. Our personal lives can achieve their full promise, even if our actions sometimes contradict our best intentions. The final word in our personal pilgrimage and in the story of the human family will be a word of light and love. 

In the hands of God, broken, hopeless people, transformed by His amazing love, can become hope-ﬁlled works of art that leave us speechless. 

The sun has completed its race across the skies and the last Easter services have now been celebrated&#8230;The Lord has risen and has gone before us. We need not fear the future. 

I hope you and your famaly have had a most joyous Easter Sunday.


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