I'm celebrating Easter this year. No one can stop me.

I’m celebrating Easter each Sunday. No one can stop me.

Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. The first disciples of Jesus remembered the resurrection on the first day of the week, each week. That is because the first day of the week was the day that Jesus came back from death. Since then, we worship on Sunday because every Sunday is Easter, the celebration of Jesus come back to life.

Many today think Easter is about bunnies and Easter Egg hunts (which I like) and maybe even lots of chocolate (which I really like). Ham dinners for some of us, which is kind of funny since Jesus was Jewish, and family gatherings. All of these things are fine. Good traditions along with others that you might have in particular.

But Easter is not about that. Easter is about the fact that there was death. Sobbing and crying all around and bitter wailing. A long wait of despair with disciples sequestered inside, self-quarantining for their own safety. Hope seemed gone and it looked like the world was out of control. 

Despair. Purposelessness. Worry. Doubt.

But then...hope broke through. Life. Joy. Jesus was alive. Jesus is alive. Easter celebration. The disciples still sequestered and self quarantining. But it was different. They knew Jesus was alive.

Jesus told them what to do as they were going through life. Yes, make disciples, baptize, and teach what He taught. He taught so many things. One was to love your neighbor as yourself.

I want to love my neighbor. Sometimes it is difficult to love all the different people around me. But Jesus told me to love them, as he loves me. I should share life with them as Jesus shared his love with me.

So this year I will celebrate Easter. And love my neighbors. I will stay home on “Easter” and the other “Easters” leading up to and beyond the “big” Easter.

I want to bring life to my neighbors, not death. So this year, because I love them, I will not invite them to Easter Sunday at some building wrongly called a "church." No one needs to give me permission for that.

Some time ahead I will gather with others to celebrate Easter one Sunday and beyond. I look forward to that. But for now…

I’m celebrating Easter each Sunday...at home...because I love my neighbors.