Area pastors speak about the meaning of Easter

By CHARITY SMITH

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Ironwood - As Christians everywhere celebrate the culmination of Holy Week this Easter Sunday, local pastors are focused on guiding their parishioners to a closer relationship with God and the promise of salvation.

"This year's theme is keeping our eyes on the heavenly or on the holy," said Pastor Keith Mullikin of Wesley United Methodist Church in Ironwood and the Wakefield United Methodist church in Wakefield. "We're so focused on the mundane around us. We're so focused on everything that is going on in our lives that we lose sight of the heavenly. We lose sight of the promise of salvation. We lose sight of what he actually requires of us."

Mullikin said there are three things that Christ requires for salvation. The first is to confess and repent of our sins. The second is to confess or profess Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. The third is to accept and use his forgiveness. According to Mullikin, those three things are the things people should be focusing on all the time.

"The third is the most difficult to accept and use his forgiveness," said Mullikin. "Forgive us as we forgive others."

Pastor Nicole Hanson-Lynn of Salem Lutheran and Zion Lutheran Churches, in Ironwood, said her theme this year is a clash of kingdoms and is inspired by current events.

"It is a very faithful way of looking at how it is portrayed in the Gospel of Luke and in the Gospel of John," said Hanson-Lynn. "That everyone came expecting a clash of Jesus, the king of the Jews, and the Roman emperor, the empire. Instead, what we got was a clash of kingdoms that looks nothing like the clash of kingdoms that we expect from an earthly vantage point."

Hanson-Lynn said that by the end of events on Good Friday, it "really looks like the kingdom of sin has won." Easter celebrates that that is not what happened, she said.

"When we engage in the clashing of kingdoms, that we know how to do, the absolute best case scenario is a mitigation of destruction," she said. "When it's God's kingdom that's breaking into our lived reality, it creates life."

Every time he preaches, Mullikin said he incorporates what is going on in the world today and tries to make people understand the fact that nothing has changed in the 2000 years since Christ was crucified, buried, died and risen.

"What was relevant then is relevant now. I try to include that in every message. How the Gospel is still relevant today, because it is," said Mullikin.

Hanson-Lynn said it is the same human struggle with sin that was seen in the passion of Christ. "That does not make it good, but it is a symptom of the same kingdom of sin that we decry every single year, every single week. It is the brokenness of sin, but that's what humans do, and that's why we need a savior" she said.

She said that as her parishioners hold a vigil this Easter, they will be going over how God has saved his people in the past. She said they will be reading about creation, the blood, the red sea, promises made to the prophet Isaiah, the valley of the dry bones. "Sometimes the stories preach better than I do," she said. "Most of the time."

Although his parish will not be conducting an Easter vigil this year, Mullikin said the vigil service in the Methodist church is very powerful. He said traditionally parishioners will take turns reading from the Bible starting at the creation and continue reading through the night, allowing people to come and go as they please. He said wherever their readers finish on Easter morning would be where they would pick up the following year. Mullikin said that although it is powerful it requires a lot of people and a lot of time.

Mullikin recalled how powerful it was to give his sermon in 2020 to an empty sanctuary, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that when the women went to the tomb on Easter, it was empty, which was incredible as it meant that Christ was out in the world. So when he saw an empty sanctuary that Easter Sunday, he felt that was incredible because that meant Christ was out in the world.

When the women came to tell the apostles what they had seen at the tomb, it was considered to be just an idle tale, said Hanson-Lynn. She said that many people, even those who come to worship, still think it is an idle tale.

"All these ways that make it seem like there is no hope. All these ways that it is tempting to think of it as just an idle tale that gives us an excuse for a party as a break from what it is going on in the world, but that it is in fact not an idle tale," said Hanson-Lynn. "It is something that changes the entire world and that hanging on to that truth is especially important in the midst of other truths being proclaimed."

Mullikin said that if people put Christ at the center of their life and make that their focus, they won't have to worry about anything else as they are guaranteed salvation. He said by doing so all the other troubles in our world will fall away, as they won't have need for them because they have salvation. "If we can focus on the heavenly focus on that salvation, focus on are relationship with Christ and shut out the loudest voices in the room then we can move forward as a society together in peace," said Mullikin.

"The crowds crying out for crucifixion and no matter how loud that is and how much it seems like they win the day, the stone is rolled away," said Hanson-Lynn.

Easter Vigil service will be held at Zion Lutheran. Easter Sunday services will be held at 9 a.m. at Zion Lutheran. A breakfast at Salem Lutheran from 9:30 a.m.- 10:30 a.m., followed by an Easter service at 11 a.m.

Ironwood Wesley United Methodist Church will hold an Easter celebration service at 10 a.m. with organ accompaniment and selections by Ironwood Chamber of Commerce director Michael Meyer.