For many, Easter weekend includes colourful baskets, chocolate eggs, fun with family and feasts.

However, Pastor Mel Letkeman, from the Grace Mennonite Church in Steinbach, says for Christians, it's not that spectacular, “because it’s hard to dress up the cross and Good Friday.” 

Pastor Mel Letkeman, Grace Mennonite Church, Steinbach

“I guess when we look at Easter, we don't look at just Easter Sunday. I think we look at Good Friday, a time of suffering and death, and we look at Saturday as a time of hope lost, and then you look at Sunday as a day that life comes in and Christ is no longer dead, but alive. So, I guess in some sense, while we remember Jesus was raised from the dead, we also remember it as we, 2000 years later, consider our world and death and what that looks like death in terms of our personal lives, in terms of life with God and our world. It's the meaning of life weekend.”

Letkeman compares the past two years of the world living in a state of crisis with the pandemic, and “then just as we’re starting to come out from underneath that, a war starts in Europe. And just when you thought things are going to get a little bit better, it seems the world is becoming frightening.”

Letkeman continues, “And I think in the same way that the disciples knew that Jesus was dead, their hope was gone, we sometimes think it is as well. And yet, we’ve got Sunday and resurrection, Jesus comes back to life. And we can also look at situations that look like death and choose life, there is hope. We believe in life, in Christ, that God brings it and that's just good news.”

Letkeman notes that we seem to spend so much time on Christmas, and not as much on Easter, and yet he says, “you can't have one without the other. I guess if God doesn't come among us in Christ, the incarnation at Christmas, then we don't have Easter. But at the same time, I think in terms of where we are culturally now. Christmas is overtaken by a lot of consumerism and it's easy to do, right? It's very fun to have a winter festival and the good news of God among us with that, but it's a little harder to dress up the crucifixion. And so, in some sense, Easter becomes our story, because we believe in Jesus risen from the dead. A story that isn't taken up by the culture in the same way that Christmas is and so, in that sense, I really believe it's so central to our story. It's our story that we kind of celebrate apart from everything around us. I wouldn't say it's more important than Christmas, obviously one needs the other, but I mean, this is our weekend, whereas Christmas seems to be our cultures’ weekend, but in a different kind of way.”

Eastman Choral Association, Easter Sunrise Service Choir, singing at the Grace Mennonite Church (2017) When asked if he feels more people go to church at Easter than at Christmas, Letkeman says, “I would say a lot more people attend church at Christmas. Particularly for Christmas Eve. Maybe for those who don't go to church any longer or never have they might go with their families at Christmas, but I’m not so sure about Easter.”

Letkeman says the number of congregants has gone up a little at the Sunday services and that those numbers aren’t what they used to be (before the pandemic). But, he says, "people are still connecting via live stream now, which we didn't before in terms of Sunday mornings, but there's been a sense of coming together. They’re excited to do that. Seeing each other. Talking with each other. Drinking coffee. Worshiping. It's slowly starting to sort of come back. That sense of who we were before is slowly starting to return. It's been very exciting. I think for everyone to enjoy being together is generally good.”

 

The Grace Mennonite Church is hosting special services each day this weekend.

Thursday, April 14 – Maundy Thursday Supper and Worship – 5:45pm

Friday, April 15 – Good Friday Outdoor Walking Worship – 10am to 11:30am

Saturday, April 16 – Sad Saturday

Sunday, April 17 – Eastman Choral Association Sunrise Service is being held at the Church – 7am.

Sunday, April 17 – Easter Service 10am

 

Other Steinbach Churches hosting Easter Weekend Services:

Steinbach Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church – Good Friday Services – 11am

Steinbach Mennonite Church – Good Friday Taize Service and Communion 9:45am /  Easter Morning Breakfast 9am / Service 9:45am

Steinbach EMC – Good Friday Service 10am

Southland Church – Prayer Summit and Good Friday Service 9am