Happy Easter

Easter is a "happy" holiday, isn't it?

This mornings 5:15 departure from the top gate was the start of my favorite day here in Jerusalem.  Easter Sunday will never be the same for me.  What better holiday could there be than Easter, a celebration of our risen Lord?  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be in this Holy Land where Christ was born, worked miracles, was crucified, and best of all, rose again on the third day triumphing over sin and death!  

I started off the morning with about 15 other students and my New Testament teacher, Brother Wilson,  at the Augusta Victoria Easter sunrise service.  Presented by a Lutheran pastor, I sat watching the sunrise over the beautiful hills and welcomed Easter morning with a calm, spiritual service.  It is cool for me to celebrate Christ's resurrection in a setting conducive to the spirit, with so many good saints surrounding me.  Everybody on that hilltop sacrificed sleep and took off work so that they could worship our Lord.  Although they may not have the fulness of the gospel, the Lutherans I worshipped with this morning were reverencing Him the best way they knew how.  

At the pinnacle of the pastor's sermon, he was proclaiming "We need not be bound by sin, but instead accept His atonement and rejoice that He lives!  The ball is in your court!"  At that point, he took out a tennis racquet and balls (very unexpected, he was in full robes...) and with all his strength hit the ball toward the audience.  Well, apparently he's been spending so much time in the scriptures that his hand/eye coordination is off... the Pastor instead nailed the wooden cross on the altar!  I tried to keep quiet, but it was really hilarious.  The poor guy tried to cover by mumbling something about how we all hit roadblocks.... but it didn't work.  Everyone was laughing :)

So we raced back to the center for breakfast, I charged my camera for a few minutes, and then we were off to the Garden tomb for the 9:30 am service.  I can't get over that:  I spent 2 hours at the garden tomb on Easter Sunday!  The theme of this service was "Worthy is the Lamb."  With reporters and videographers from BBC, CBS and many other stations, we rejoiced that Jesus conquered sin, death and the grave.  It was so powerful to sit/stand and rejoice with at least a thousand other Christians.  (And I was on the third row!)  I was a bit hesitant about the Garden Tomb service after learning there would be a rock band there... but I actually really enjoyed it.  Over half the service consisted of the entire "congregation" singing Christian songs including "Stronger,"  "See What a Morning,"  and "The King Crowned with Power."  With moral relativism and a lack of commitment so rampant in the world today, it was refreshing to see so many people devoted to one thing:  worshipping the Risen Lord with their whole souls.

As great as the sense of unity and worship was, nothing can beat the confirmation of the Holy Ghost in testifying of our triumphant Brother and Savior.   After watching 3 sessions of conference yesterday, it was interesting for me to compare my feelings after worshipping in  two such polar opposite manners.  It is such a blessing to have a prophet and apostles who testify of our risen Lord with conviction and power and authority, with the companionship of the Holy Ghost, something that Christian rock band did not have.  

  

As great as it is to be at sites like the garden tomb and Gethsemane, but we do not need these physical locations to reflect upon and attempt to understand our merciful Savior.  Being here in Jerusalem has created sacred time and space for me to do just that.  But I believe that anybody anywhere can experience the sweet peace and motivation to be a better disciple that commemorating these sites can bring to those who seek.