In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul lets us in on how God works in the world and then, he uses seven verbs to tell us who we are in Christ.

The church in Ephesus began with a riot, nearly killing Paul. Talk about a rough start!

For centuries, in Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant countries, Easter Monday and “Bright Sunday” (the Sunday after Easter) were observed by the faithful as “days of joy and laughter” with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Parishioners and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, sang, and danced. It was a time for clergy and people to tell jokes and to have fun. While these joyful celebrations seemed to be a reaction to the austerity of the Lenten season, the custom of Easter Monday and Bright Sunday celebrations were rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. Easter was “God’s supreme joke played on death.”