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How often
does Easter
come at your house?
Reflections on the lessons for Easter
By The Rev. Mark A. Lewis, Vicar
Isaiah 25:6-9 / Psalm 118:14-17,
22-24
Colossians 3:1-4 / Mark
16:1-8
Some years I am just plain silly about Easter -- coloring eggs all for myself and planning a big party for my friends. And some years -- there's no predicting which ones -- I can't wait for noon on Easter Day so I can go home, take the phone off the hook, order a pizza, and spend the afternoon watching old movies on TV.
This year falls somewhere in between. I am going to a party this afternoon, but it's a birthday party. And the birthday girl's Jewish.
But, on Easter as on about every other day of the year I resent being ordered to be festive, or feeling obliged to have a good time. If the rejoicing doesn't come to me naturally, then I want nothing to do with it.
On my off-Easters, I don't want to sing happy songs and go looking for eggs like a six-year-old. Those years I really respond to today's gospel reading which -- if you'll notice -- is not full of glad people, but full of confused and anxious people.
The women in today's gospel are not having a holiday. They must be thinking that they have been led on a merry chase by this guy who did have a lot to say about freedom and peace and a whole new way to live a fuller, fresher life. But now he's dead. And on top of that somebody's robbed the grave. And there might well be more trouble with the law in store for them. They're afraid. And even the optimistic guy in the white robe doesn't take the edge off their worries.
If you had been asked to summarize the Easter gospel in your own words, you might not have been very accurate. Would you have remembered that no one sees Jesus? That the women freaked out? They run away. They're terrified. They don't tell anyone what happened.
But there's more to the story than just what's written down here. 2000 years later, we wouldn't be celebrating this holiday if, gradually, in fits and starts, those women hadn't eventually remembered (with gratitude and gladness) what they had learned from Jesus: How life is made for living. How the fear of disaster need not be strong enough to stop ordinary people from attempting great things. How every living person is good enough for God just as they are.
They seem to have figured out at last that nothing Jesus' life had started in them could be stopped, not even by his death. They definitely didn't feel like celebrating that first Easter morning. But we wouldn't be here this Easter morning if they hadn't come around sooner or later, in their own good time.
Easter is a very subtle holiday. A casual glance and you might think it celebrates an event from the past -- one that you may or may not believe actually happened. But that's not the real story. Easter celebrates in one big annual way a reality that (Christians are urged to believe) infuses every minute of every human life. So -- the good news is you can have your resurrection festival whenever you like, not just when the church decides it's time to shout Hallelujah in the springtime.
What Easter is about is the reality of new life in your life. Easter Day isn't the anniversary of the symbolism of Jesus' empty tomb. It's just one particular celebration of the astounding notion that there is nothing "out there" ultimately keeping you from being the best person God intends for you to be. Easter preaches that nothing can close down the possibility of a whole new kind of tomorrow for you. Easter sings about an unlimited number of second chances out there for absolutely everybody absolutely all the time.
The church says we ought to have a big Easter Day on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. But Easter really happens whenever people recognize that their lives are sacred, divine -- and so is everyone else's life. Easter happens when people finally "get it" that a kind of strength comes from knowing we're finally going to be OK -- a strength that makes carrying around a load of worry completely pointless. Easter happens when you think you're all washed up, but then a whole new doorway opens up in front of you.
The so-called first Easter wasn't the best one by a long shot. God's sons and daughters rise from the dead all the time. The church makes an extra big deal about it once a year. But you won't really feel like celebrating much until you notice how often it happens at your house. And then you won't be able to get enough of it.
-- Mark Lewis
Your comments or questions are welcome MLewis@secaucus.org.
Links to additional "Reflections on Lessons" may be found at the bottom of the Sunday web page.
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