Sometimes I forget that the same God that is worshiped in the States is the same God that is worshiped throughout the rest of the word. It is all the same beautiful story of love and redemption. The only difference is the language being used. This point was really brought home to me this past Easter Sunday when I attended Easter Sunday services at EPEA, an evangelical church in Angers, France.
I was originally not going to attend a church service on Easter. I was just going to watch the live stream from my home church over Facebook. However, the Thursday before Easter, a friend of mine suggested that we go to EPEA for their service. I couldn’t think of a reason not to attend, so we went.
I was very nervous/excited about going to a French church. I really missed being a part of a Christian community, but I knew I wouldn’t understand what was being said. So Sunday morning I put on my Sunday best (a dress and makeup), and I went to my very first French church service.
When I first walked in the door I was surprised to see so many English speaking international students. I was warmly greeted, and I was overcome with joy to be surrounded by my sisters in Christ. I did not know these students, but we had the most important common thread: Jesus.
Before the service started the pastor’s wife, asked if anyone needed a translation during the service. I quickly raised my hand, and she paired me with a woman who would sit behind me during the service and translate the French to English.
The service started with songs of praise, and a scripture reading of the Easter story. I was struck by how many words I recognized from the lyrics and scriptures passages that were projected onto the wall. For example: resurrection was résurrection, Holy Spirit was Saint Esprit, trinity was trinité, cross was croix, and God was Dieu. I understood more than I thought I would. Also I had brought my own bible, so when passages were read all I had to do was flip to the same passage in my English translation, and follow. The same beautiful story just in a different language.
True to her word, the French woman who I was paired up with sat behind me, and translated the majority to the service for me. Her name was Rachel. I will forever be grateful to Rachel because the sermon was awesome. The sermon focused on how God prepares courageous men and women, and how the hand of God is in everything. The sermon closed with the truth of the Gospel, and a call for nonbelievers to believe. I was shook.
The church was small, and the pastor called for an open prayer where the congregation could openly declare their thankfulness to the Lord for what he did that first Easter Sunday. Of course the prayers were in French, but there was no mistaking the beauty of worship. Communion was then offered to all who believed, and I was able to participate for the first time since last August.
As I was speaking to the pastor and his wife after the service, I learned the history of the EPEA church. I was struck by a profound and simple thought – I might move all around the world, but so does God. I might be surrounded by a different language and culture, but God does not change. God is the same loving God in the States, in the UK, in France, in Sudan, in Haiti, in China, and anywhere else in the world. We his children share a common bond through Christ that no amount of worldly difference can take away.
Isn’t that what Easter is about? The joy and love that was won for all people through Jesus. The veil that was torn, so that all mankind could be one with God the Father. Coming together as one body to worship the King who made us all new.
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