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Normal Easter is just a memory this year. There is still grieving going on about Easter as it could have been; Easter as is should be. Now, we’re trying to figure out what the new normal is going to be. Before COVID (B.C.), for me, Holy Week would include a Wednesday night confirmation class road trip to the Seward UMC for their annual Living Last Supper presentation. I’ve hardly missed a year since we were pastors there (1997-2002). Jesus and the boys placed you dramatically in the room where it happened. Normally, before COVID, Thursday evening of Holy Week was Maundy Thursday worship with communion. Friday evening was a Good Friday Tennabrae service of light and darkness. In GI, both of those services were shared with First Faith UMC rotating back and forth between their place and our place. Before COVID, in Ainsworth, Seward, Beatrice, and Doniphan, Holy Saturday meant a community wide Easter Egg Hunt. Before COVID, Easter Sunday began with Sunrise worship. Then regular Easter worship was packed with whole families filling the pews. Family after family had promised Grandma, they’d be there all dressed, pressed, and polished at her church for Easter worship. Of course, Grandma had blackmailed her family into coming to church or there would be no Easter dinner! It was a Christian salmon returning to their home stream kind of thing. Before COVID, there was something different about preaching to a packed house on Easter. My heart would try to jump out of my chest I’d get so excited! Normally, at Trinity, the annual Easter singing of “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” with the full chancel choir behind you with extra brass instruments and the organ cranked up to full capacity was a soul filling experience. It made water escape from my eyes uncontrollably. Before COVID, I liked to have the kids race around the sanctuary during children’s time. I’d make them raise their hands and promise not to hit their heads on the corners of the pews, and I’d talk about the foot race between Peter and John on that first Easter morning. It was a worship celebration like no other. Before COVID, in my family, the Karges preachers (four of us right now), would crash for a glorious Easter Sunday afternoon nap. Then we’d gather at Mom’s place in Lincoln for our own family Easter feast and Easter egg hunt for the little ones after supper. Before COVID, Mom would make deviled eggs, her fruit pizza, Grandma’s pineapple casserole, green bean casserole, and ham in some form. Sister-in-law Dianne would make her crescent rolls and bring her Dad’s homemade orange marmalade. Last year, the new normal of Easter was live-streamed worship videoed in an empty sanctuary. The scripture and the message are the normal ones. But last year, Easter was a blizzard, and everyone stayed home and watched from their living rooms. Last year, Seward UMC streamed an old video of the Living Last Supper. Maundy Thursday worship was live-streamed from our Bishop Rueben Saenz in Topeka. Good Friday was live-streamed from First Faith UMC’s webpage. Last year, we had a drive-by family Easter Event where we handed Easter packets to folks through their car windows. We also handed out palm leaves after church on Palm Sunday in a drive-by car parade. Last year, on Easter afternoon, we did a Zoom call with my family that included Karges grandkids in Nebraska, North Carolina, and California. This year, we’re crossing our fingers and having in-person Easter worship at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. with masks and social distancing. Christina, our Family Ministries Director, has provided us with Sunday School videos and a Family Easter kit to do at home. The New Normal is teaching us words like Hybrid Worship and Hybrid meetings. The New Normal is having just as many folks watching on line on Saturday night and Sunday morning worship as we have present in-person. Some of our on-line guests are from all over the world. In the end, normal is more about the past than the present; more about our comfort level—our desire to not be afraid of an unknown future. The good thing is that God is not, and has never been, normal. And next year at Easter, we’ll be talking about the difference between life before COVID (B.C.) and life after COVID (A.C.). Grace & Peace, Rev. Kelly Karges