An Introduction To Worship From Easter To Pentecost

The tenor of the Easter season is the opposite of the that of Lenten worship. While Lent is characterized by austerity, during Easter the church celebrates. Fasting and kneeling are replaced by alleluias of celebration.

Easter is the annual festival that forms the center around which our liturgical life, indeed our faith, moves in orbit. We are Easter people precisely because it is in the unitive, historical event of cross and resurrection that we find the source of our salvation. While the details are far from clear, there seems to be wide agreement among scholars that, in addition to the weekly celebration of the Resurrection, an annual observance of Easter became standard fare very early in the life of the ancient church. Indeed, there is every reason to suspect that the primitive Christian community of Jewish origin would have observed the "Passover of God in Christ" the very next year after the Crucifixion. There seems to be little doubt that the original annual observance was celebrated on the night from the fourteenth to the fifteenth of Nisan, the night of Passover. The impact of this conjunction of festivals is no doubt responsible for the rich paschal theology and liturgical shape of the Christian celebration of the Resurrection. The influence of Passover can be seen in the very name of the event—Pascha. The writings of the early church fathers regularly used Pascha to refer to the cross/Resurrection event and the annual liturgical observance of it. Until the fourth century, the word was understood to derive from the Greek word paschein, meaning "to suffer." Augustine, however, rightly pointed out that the term was derived from the Hebrew word pesach, that is, Passover. The cross and resurrection of Christ is his passover, his passage out of death into life. The liturgical observance of the passover of Christ, concerned not with the Passion or Resurrection, but with both together as one salvific event, is the Paschal Vigil". The liturgy for the Vigil of Easter, the Christian Passover, as set forth in the worship books or supplemental resources of many churches, is comprised of four major components, all of which have enjoyed centuries of Christian liturgical usage. It is important to examine each part separately. The Vigil begins with the kindling of the new fire—the Service of Light. In the pre-electric world, the dawning and setting of the sun were daily events of nature that both regulated life and worship. The lighting of the evening lamps was a moment of ritual significance in the Jewish meal traditions for sabbaths and major feasts. The early Christians also included a lamp lighting, the lucernarium, in their daily offering of evening prayers. The particular lamp lighting of the vigil may have more definite origins in the eighth-century Gallican liturgies. There it appears that the lights in the church were progressively extinguished in the last days of Holy Week and a new light had to be kindled for the evening. It is often suggested that the service begin apart from the church building, preferably outdoors. The new paschal candle is lit and the procession moves into the dark church led by the light of Christ. The rekindling of the light of Christ that was earlier extinguished during Holy Week, and the solemn procession into the church—the passage out of darkness into light—is a moving liturgical experience which forms a candid backdrop against which the vigil continues. This Service of Light continues as the deacon (or liturgical assistant) sings the Exultet: "Rejoice, now, all heavenly choirs of angels … "The Exultet, in one of its several forms, was in widespread use by the eighth century, but it seems clear that the inspiration for it was well in place several centuries earlier. An examination of the text will reveal its deep paschal imagery and theology. This is the night of the new Passover. This is the night when darkness becomes light, sadness becomes joy, despair becomes hope, death becomes life. At the conclusion of the Exultet, the congregation extinguishes its candles and a Service of Readings begins. Most traditions appoint from nine to twelve readings from the Old Testament or Apocrypha. Whatever the number, the story of creation (Genesis 1:1–2:2), the account of the flood (Genesis 7:1–15, 11–18; 8:6–18; 9:8–13), the narrative of Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10–15:1), and the story of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1–14) are normally included. Most traditions provide psalms, canticles, and prayers to accompany the readings. This lengthy service of readings guides the congregation's "watching and waiting" through the hours of the night—awaiting the cockcrow announcing the dawning of the new day, the day of resurrection. The readings, canticles, and prayers are separated by extended periods of quietness for meditation; this entire portion of the vigil can take hours to complete. Following the readings, the sacrament of Holy Baptism may be celebrated, or a rite for the renewal of baptismal life. The liturgy that celebrates the passage of Christ out of death into life is the time for the celebration of the sacrament which buries us with him in death and raises us with him to new life. Pastors and laity responsible for worship planning should encourage the formation of groups of baptismal candidates, both children and adults, so that the powerful implications, pastoral and theological, of paschal baptism are not missed either by those being initiated into God's family or to the congregation that witnesses and participates in the sacramental action of God. At the conclusion of the initiation rites, the Holy Eucharist is celebrated in all of its splendor. Some have argued that the vigil Eucharist should not be too resplendent so as not to detract from the power of the Sunday celebration. This is hardly a worry. The celebration of the total mystery of redemption at the Paschal Vigil need not in any way lessen the joy of Easter day. In fact, the opposite is likely to be the case. The vigil observes the historic and continuing redemption of the people of God into which salvatory mainstream we are inserted by water and the Spirit. The Paschal Vigil brings before the people all that they are, know, and experience as God's people. We noted earlier that the original annual observance of Pascha coincided with the Passover regardless of the day of the week upon which it fell. That is to say that while the weekly celebration of resurrection took place on Sunday, the annual celebration, in its primitive form, was celebrated in conjunction with the date of Passover. Some scholars argue for an early institution of Sunday observance but it is not until the second century, and in some places late in the century, that we can speak with certainty about the annual observance of Easter being regularly celebrated on Sunday. It is indeed unfortunate that the Sunday celebration of Easter, particularly the so-called "sunrise service," has in much of Protestantism replaced the noctural Paschal Vigil. The Vigil that the liturgical and sacramental rite celebrates encompasses all upon which our salvation depends. Certainly we can be zealous enough to "pull out all the stops" at the vigil only to find ourselves anxious to return in the morning to celebrate the "yet more glorious day!" It hardly needs to be said that our Eastertide festivities do not end with Easter day. In addition to the celebration of our redemption every Lord's Day, we have set aside fifty days of paschal rejoicing. Easter day is not the climax, but the beginning of our season of holy rejoicing. Our worship comes to its resounding climax on the day of Pentecost—the fiftieth day of Easter. It is unfortunate that many of our parishes treat the Sundays after Easter day as "business as usual" with no special music, decorations, or festivity. What would happen if we asked people to spread their offering of Easter lilles over the eight Sundays rather than packing them all into the church on Easter day so that we have to walk around them and choke on their overwhelming odor? Or, what about a major musical service on the sixth Sunday of Easter, a day which in many traditions honor the importance of music to Christian life and worship? Many congregations that are still struggling to restore the full Sunday liturgy of Word and sacrament have found that the Sundays of Easter are an ideal time to experiment with weekly Eucharists. It is difficult to argue against weekly Eucharists, the weekly banquet of the Resurrection, during the weeks of Easter, and it is a long enough period for the congregation to become acquainted with the rhythm of the weekly celebration. Contained within the Easter season is the festival of the Ascension of Our Lord. Ascension is one of the annual festivals of the church's life that always falls on a weekday, the fortieth day of Easter. Like Epiphany, Ascension often fails to get the treatment it deserves in the life of many congregations. The ascension of Christ into heaven and his exaltation in the kingdom over which he reigns is a critical piece of the Easter proclamation and essential part of the history of our redemption. In the words of the Moravian liturgy, "Christ our crucified, risen, and ascended Redeemer, shall remain our confession of faith." Our celebration of the fiftieth day of Easter, the day of Pentecost, brings our annual observance of our Lord's resurrection to a joyful close. The day should parallel the Easter day festivities closely, perhaps with the inclusion of a vigil for Pentecost. The music should be every bit as exultant. The decoration of the church should visually impress upon one's eyes the celebrative nature of the day. The preaching should be carefully planned and executed. On the fiftieth day, the church should be filled to overflowing, just like it was on the first day of Easter. If our keeping of the fiftieth day fails to parallel the beginning of the season and move us to a powerful conclusion of our Resurrection proclamation, we have work to do. It is unfortunate that we have designated the day of Pentecost as its own festival commemorating the sending of the Holy Spirit to the church. It is far better to embrace the sending of the Spirit as the completion, the fulfillment, of the resurrection promises of the risen Christ, the climax of the Easter message, and not as a separate event. The day of Pentecost must stand alongside of Easter in importance, and our liturgical expressions must show that vividly. This understanding of Pentecost would suggest that, while baptism and confirmation certainly have their historic and pastoral place on this day, other possibilities should be explored for their celebration so as not to take anything away from the major proclamation of the day. Another Sunday of Easter, the Sunday of Holy Trinity, or best of all, the Vigil of Pentecost on the evening before, are appropriate alternatives. It would be possible to fill pages with little details that would underscore the thrust of our liturgical celebrations of Easter. But the point is a very simple one: From the first notes of the Gloria in Excelsis at the Paschal Vigil to the dismissal at the close of the Eucharist for Pentecost there should be no letup in our resounding, if at times rowdy, celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. The cross and resurrection of Christ was a reckless act of pure love, for us. Our response must be no less so. "Christ, our crucified, risen, and ascended Redeemer, shall remain our confession of faith!"