The shredded shroud

The 40 days of Lent are over, and with them, our congregational focus on covenant. Pastor Phil Kniss suggested that many of us might be done with covenant by now, thinking that this Easter Sunday is all about celebration and "Alleluia!" But Pastor Phil was drawn again this Sunday to the idea of God's covenant with humanity. Isaiah 25:6-9 speaks of God preparing a feast for humanity, destroying the death-shroud encasing humanity. In God's action of raising Christ on that first Easter morning, Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled. The shroud was shredded, and death's power no longer is the final word. A death shroud no longer defines our lives, even though we still experience pain and death.