APRIL EPISTLE                 Pastor Tom Junkert



Easter - It’s all about ‘starting over again’!
I can still see it. I was accompanying a children’s choir at St. Mark’s church, and the director got us going, but something just wasn’t right. Whether it was the choir, or me, our director waved her hands and stopped us! I don’t remember what she said, but we ‘started over from the top’ and it went much better. My aunt, who ordinarily didn’t comment much, made this observation, ‘It was good you started over!’ Indeed. Isn’t that what Easter is all about?

During the recent winter Olympics, I read with interest about Scott Hamilton, himself an Olympic gold medalist in figure skating, who for the last 25 years was on the NBC’s broadcast crew, until recently being demoted.


In the last two decades Scott has battled cancer and is currently doing battle with a brain tumor. But here is a sample of Scott’s determination and attitude. “I calculated once how many times I fell during my skating career - 41, 600 times, “ he said. “But the funny thing; I got up 41,600 times. That’s the muscle you have to build in your psyche - the one that reminds you to just get up!”
Easter is all about how we ‘get up’ and how we ‘start over from the top’! It isn’t necessarily all about us, however. It has everything to do with what God has done in Jesus, by raising him from the dead, smashing the hold that darkness, despair and death have over us and giving us the chance to start over again. And who among us doesn’t need that? Not just once a year on Easter Sunday, but every day. How about starting off every day with this declaration; “Lord, this is a new day. Thanks for a new start”

Let’s PRACTICE RESURRECTION. Alleluia! Christ is risen!