Messages of hope at Easter

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, April 11, 2020

Nothing is the same; not even going to church and worshiping Jesus Christ on one of the holiest days in the lives of Christians all over the world.

Community Easter egg hunts, such as the one traditionally held at Freedom Church in Milledgeville, is canceled along with other local religious activities, including Sunday school and church services. 

And there will be no Easter Sunrise services.

The reason, of course, is the novel coronavirus global pandemic that has forced temporary church closures around the world, including the majority of the churches in and around Milledgeville and Baldwin County.

The closure of churches is keeping with executive orders put in place by Gov. Brian Kemp for social distancing and residents to shelter-in-place.

Even so, it’s not stopping preachers from various denominations from delivering Easter messages of hope during troubled and uncertain times. Their messages will come from the pulpits of their churches via livestream social media platforms.

Two local religious leaders, the Rev. Mike Waers, senior pastor of Northridge Christian Church in Milledgeville, and Father Young Nguyen at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Milledgeville, will be among them. 

Unlike some churches that have offered special messages each day of Holy Week and leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday, Northridge Christian Church takes a different approach.

“We put all of our focus on Sunday,” said Waers, who has served as senior pastor at Northridge Christian Church for the past 11 years. “With things being so different this year, we’ve been working on getting videos prepared to livestream on Saturday night and Sunday morning.”

A special Easter service will be offered Saturday at 5:30 p.m. 

And then the Sunday morning services, which will last about 40 minutes, will be streamed at 9:30 and 11.

Special prayer requests will be taken live after the service.

“Last week, we probably had about 10 people who asked for special prayer,” Waers said. “I think people are getting used to it because it’s a new platform for us. And that’s a good thing. I think it says two things. They are beginning to understand how it works, but many of them are also probably feeling a lot more anxiety now and need prayer — something that will bring comfort to them.”

Those interested can follow the services on Saturday and Sunday at Northridge Christian Church by going to the church’s website — live.northridge.online. 

“Our Sunday morning Easter service will be somewhat like our typical morning worship services,” Waers said. “We will offer some special worship music that we’ve put together. It’s videoed and geared to really help people during their time of worship in the living rooms of their homes.”

A special communion time also will be held, Waers said.

“We have asked people to prepare at home for the communion,” Waers said. “We’ll then do a brief communion meditation and then we’ll have those at home join us with juice and a cracker at their homes as the representation of Jesus’ blood and his body on the cross.”

And there will be a special prayer time set aside to pray for physicians and nurses and others at Navicent Health Baldwin hospital and a host of local businesses, as well as other churches, Waers said.

“The message is really going to be a message of hope,” Waers said. “When we follow Jesus through the cross and the resurrection, it is hoped that we will all find hope for today. We’ll be talking about how we find hope and a lot of it will focus on the pandemic and the mess that we’re in now.”

Waers compared it to the way things probably were on the Saturday when the disciples were confused and a little disoriented.

“They were probably thinking what’s going on,” Waers said. “And that’s what a lot of us are feeling today. And the only way they got through it was to get to the other side and resurrection.”

Waers said he is offering parishioners encouragement.

“The big thing we’re telling them is that we don’t know what it is going to look like when we come out the other side, but we do know that God is still in control, “ Waers said. “And we do know that He is bigger than this. And when we get through to the other side that life will likely be different from the way we do things now.”

Waers said he believes strongly that God will use the coronavirus pandemic for His purpose.

Meanwhile, Father Young at Sacred Heart Catholic Church will also turn to a livestream on Facebook with a message of hope to his congregation and others watching from their homes.

Asked how Holy Week had gone this week, Young said things have certainly been different.

“With what CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and what the Diocese have told us in that we cannot hold public services, we’ve had to go to other ways of allowing people to participate, like online services,” Young said. “That’s all we can do.”

Young said such ways had been the norm for the past three weeks during mass.

He explained that he had turned weekday masses into private times.

Some have come directly to the church during the week, but it’s generally no more than three or four people at a time, Young said. 

The Father said he wanted to make sure that the church was following the guidelines of state and federal health officials, as well as the Diocese regarding social distancing and the wearing of masks by people if they are in the public.

On Easter Sunday, Young said the church will follow the Diocese protocol to provide a livestream mass, so as many people who would like can participate.

Anyone wishing to listen to Sunday’s Easter message can go to https://fb.me/sacredheartmilledgeville

Young said his message will focus on the fact that even in the dark moments that Jesus’ disciples faced in the early church, Mary Magdalene had hope.

“She was the first one to be at the tomb and then we read later in the Gospel of John that because of that hope she was the first to witness the resurrection,” Young said. “And then John, the beloved disciple, and Peter ran to the tomb, and discovered that the Lord had been resurrected.”

Young said in today’s times of uncertainly and the isolation that some people are experiencing, people need to hear a message about hope for a brighter day and one of hope for a better tomorrow.

“We can only trust and believe in the Lord that everything will be OK,” Young said. “And that the Lord is in control.”