Easter Sunday

We have not been to an Easter Sunrise service in a long time, but we remember having attended a beautiful one many years ago at Kitty Hawk Pier, which I particularly recall featured a trumpet playing "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" as the sun appeared over the ocean.  So this morning we decided to worship in this way again, and without having coffee or breakfast, we awoke at 5:30 a.m. and were on the road earlier than we had been last Sunday when we were running our half marathon.  We joined a large group of early-morning worshipers assembling at the Pier.

 
The interfaith service this year was supposed to feature a retired Episcopalian Rector, and I had even found him on the internet and watched him preach.  But the information we had must have been from last year.  We crowded into the building, standing in the rear, as an earnest young lay preacher introduced a male choir accompanied by a guitar singing "Old Rugged Cross," and then proceeded to preach in a style to which we are not accustomed.  We looked at each other and quietly slipped out, walking out onto the pier with other worshipers who, like us, wanted to watch the sun rise and enjoy the beauty of the morning.  Behind an eerily cross-like light post, the rising sun gleamed through the clouds, symbolizing the new life and triumph of this holy day.

I felt that we had not really heard the preaching I had expected, so we decided to go to a second 8:00 a.m. service at the Duck United Methodist Church and listen to another sermon.  Although the music was beautiful, and we had the opportunity sing the beloved hymns of faith that we enjoy - "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" and "Crown Him with Many Crowns" - I again was disappointed in the preaching.  We have come to appreciate the fine sermons of Powell Osteen at the Morehead City United Methodist Church every year, which we attend regularly while we are there, and so I missed his thoughtful, beautifully-crafted messages, so sincere and likeable and yet so deep and insightful.

So that's what I did - I "attended" Church for a third time, listening to him on the internet, where all of their services are recorded.  And what a wonderful message it was for this day and time:  "By His Stripes We are Healed."

Martha had wisely reserved Easter Dinner long ago at Mako's Beach Grill, where we dined on an abundant spread of seafood (Hatteras clam chowder, crab cakes, oysters on the half-shell, shrimp and grits) and more traditional Easter fare (Virginia ham, beef tenderloin, green beans almondine).  One of the most interesting things was Colington Crab Gravy, a local delicacy we had never encountered before and a recipe we must find; it was designed to go on sweet-potato biscuits, but was delicious on the crab cakes!

And so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and checking on our friends and loved ones.  A man in a wet-suit was surfing directly off our dune-top deck, and we could see the occasional shapes of dolphins, arching from the water behind him.  A dozen or so brown pelicans flew lazily over the surface of the ocean.

It was snowing yesterday in Highlands, we learned.  But here it is 60 degrees and the sun is shining yet again.  I think we will stay at few more days, just to make sure winter has been banished for good!