Eastertide 2024

In the closing scene of the 1998 Coen Brothers’ cult classic, The Big Lebowski a character simply known as the Stranger says to Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, “Take it easy, Dude. I know that you will.” Lebowski simply replies, “Yeah, well, the Dude abides.” This might just seem like a quirky way for the Dude to say goodbye, but it’s actually paraphrased from a line in the Bible. It comes from Ecclesiastes 1:4, “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.”

The continuity of the earth is an image to help convey the continuity of God’s love. God’s love started even before creation, was displayed in Christ, is present in all who love God, and will continue long after we are gone. As we are reminded in 1 John 4:16, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

Over the final four Sundays of Easter 2024, our worship theme, The Christ Abides, will help us focus on how we abide in God and Christ’s love abides in us.