Easter People

Rev. Wood,

I visited at your Sunrise/6:33am service on Easter Sunday and, by way of story, I wanted to share my thanks and God’s Glory with you and Mount Pisgah UMC.

A day or two before Easter I sent an email through your website inquiring why your service was listed at 6:33am… I was visiting from Virginia, staying with my Dad who has been quite ill and his wife who live in Roswell.  My Dad, according to him, is an unbeliever, but wondered at your sign, why 6:33 am??  No, he didn’t go to services but I did.

I left home early enough, I thought, to have plenty of time…had trouble finding it.  I drove around and around your huge mega-campus.  Asked some folks who were setting up your AV stuff, presumably for 8am service on North Campus.  They pointed and instructed and wished me well.  Finally, I pulled into the correct parking lot, approached the outdoor gathering, took a bulletin from the man who wished me a “much too enthusiastic Happy Easter” for that hour of the dark morning.  I took one step into the natural amphitheater.  The chimers ended their song.  I looked down and pressed the illumination button on my watch.  The time: 6:33am.  Aha!  They had scheduled the service just for me!!!  (Well, this sounded good anyway – still I don’t know for sure)

The real reason I write is what happened next: it was dark and I was standing in the middle aisle, looking a bit lost.  A woman saw me, moved a bit back toward her seat, her action inviting me to come and sit next to her.  Everyone was standing and so I slid past her to stand in front of the open seat.  Then she reached down and spread her warm blanket across my chair as well as hers and said “sit on this.  Otherwise it is too cold.”  We continued to stand, attempting to sing the words in our bulletin as I could illuminate them by the sporadic glow of my cell phone – set on silent, of course.  When we sat down, I was indeed warm when I would have been cold.  No sermon need be preached, although thank you for doing so just the same.  The story of your last moments with your grandmother was truly remarkable.

I wish I had found out this woman’s name.  But that is not important to the story. The message to me was clear and so I send it to you.  Even in the midst of the majesty of Easter, the cold, the dark, the mystical three crosses that became one before us by virtue of your lighting combined with the rising Son/sun, we must not forget to welcome the stranger.  It shouts loud hallelujahs.  He is risen that we might go, even and especially to the stranger, and offer our love in his name.  Sometimes in our large churches this is the lesson that needs remembering.  We often forget this.

Pastor Steve, you are to be commended.  May Mount Pisgah continue to reach many for Christ, even as we minister to the many who know Him and yet are in need.

Blessings to you and your Easter people!