more than a day
Every year, God’s faithful celebrate Easter. The day the Church observes in remembrance of the moment that God exerted his power, raising Jesus from the dead. We celebrate that the stone has been moved, the grave is now a groove, and all debts are removed.
There is a lot of build up to this day. The journey to the empty tomb begins weeks before Easter on Ash Wednesday. Then for forty days, during the Lenten Season, we dig into the muck and mire of our own souls. In prayers and practices of repentance, accompanied by fasting, we are reminded of our own depravity and our need for God. We remind ourselves that we are incapable of finding our own redemption.
During Lent, the dark season of the church calendar, we anticipate the celebration of Easter. We know inside, that our story does not end in ashes, but in the hope of the resurrection.
Through Good Friday (which is a curious name) and Holy Saturday, we wait until we wake up on Sunday. It is Easter. We celebrate, some even dress up for their church’s gathering, and we eat large meals with friends. As well we should, it is a great day. It celebrates the moment on which those of us of Christian faith place our hope. But then it ends.
Monday comes and we move on with our routines. We look ahead toward summer and hope that Spring is drawing closer. For the most part however, Easter is over toward next year. Why do we spend so much time building up toward Easter, but then experience such an abrupt halt after the day?
This year I have begun to question this. If we spend at least forty days preparing, shouldn't we spend minimally forty days after celebrating? (This is the beauty of the Liturgical Calendar keeping the resurrection as a part of our celebration until Ascension Sunday.) If we removed Christmas from the Bible we would lose a couple of chapters from Gospel of Matthew and a few from the Gospel of Luke. If we removed Easter from the Bible we would lose the majority of the New Testament. Yet Easter is a blip on the radar in our yearly calendar.
While some celebrate Lent, and spend forty days preparing for Easter, fewer spend anytime after. Beyond that Lent is a dark time that precedes the resurrection; shouldn’t we spend more time celebrating the resurrection – at least more than one Sunday when we dress up? The Church is a community based on the resurrection. The Church is called to be a people who live as a resurrection community – that is a community of hope.
Luke tells an interesting story in his Gospel. After Jesus has risen two of his followers are walking to a town called Emmaus. They are in intense discussion as they walk along the road, and they are joined by a stranger, who is Jesus, but they do not recognize him.
The stranger asks them what is going on, and they reply “Are you not from Jerusalem, don’t you know what has happened here in the last few days?” They simply are confused as to why Jesus was killed, and why his tomb is empty. The stranger then tells them about what was really going on. Luke says, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Jesus reframes the story of the Hebrew Scriptures. He shifts their common paradigm. The resurrection sheds a whole new light on the Scriptures. It is a whole new story. A story that gives these disciples a new way of living, thinking, and seeing.
This is what Easter does. It reframes our story. It shifts the world in which we live. It gives those who follow Jesus, not just something to believe in, but an entirely new creation. This is something certainly worth celebrating, but not just for one day.
If Easter reframes our story that means everyday we are living in light of its hope in the front of our minds. We ought to remember, proclaim, live out, and celebrate Easter all year long as a resurrection community.
There is a lot of build up to this day. The journey to the empty tomb begins weeks before Easter on Ash Wednesday. Then for forty days, during the Lenten Season, we dig into the muck and mire of our own souls. In prayers and practices of repentance, accompanied by fasting, we are reminded of our own depravity and our need for God. We remind ourselves that we are incapable of finding our own redemption.
During Lent, the dark season of the church calendar, we anticipate the celebration of Easter. We know inside, that our story does not end in ashes, but in the hope of the resurrection.
Through Good Friday (which is a curious name) and Holy Saturday, we wait until we wake up on Sunday. It is Easter. We celebrate, some even dress up for their church’s gathering, and we eat large meals with friends. As well we should, it is a great day. It celebrates the moment on which those of us of Christian faith place our hope. But then it ends.
Monday comes and we move on with our routines. We look ahead toward summer and hope that Spring is drawing closer. For the most part however, Easter is over toward next year. Why do we spend so much time building up toward Easter, but then experience such an abrupt halt after the day?
This year I have begun to question this. If we spend at least forty days preparing, shouldn't we spend minimally forty days after celebrating? (This is the beauty of the Liturgical Calendar keeping the resurrection as a part of our celebration until Ascension Sunday.) If we removed Christmas from the Bible we would lose a couple of chapters from Gospel of Matthew and a few from the Gospel of Luke. If we removed Easter from the Bible we would lose the majority of the New Testament. Yet Easter is a blip on the radar in our yearly calendar.
While some celebrate Lent, and spend forty days preparing for Easter, fewer spend anytime after. Beyond that Lent is a dark time that precedes the resurrection; shouldn’t we spend more time celebrating the resurrection – at least more than one Sunday when we dress up? The Church is a community based on the resurrection. The Church is called to be a people who live as a resurrection community – that is a community of hope.
Luke tells an interesting story in his Gospel. After Jesus has risen two of his followers are walking to a town called Emmaus. They are in intense discussion as they walk along the road, and they are joined by a stranger, who is Jesus, but they do not recognize him.
The stranger asks them what is going on, and they reply “Are you not from Jerusalem, don’t you know what has happened here in the last few days?” They simply are confused as to why Jesus was killed, and why his tomb is empty. The stranger then tells them about what was really going on. Luke says, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Jesus reframes the story of the Hebrew Scriptures. He shifts their common paradigm. The resurrection sheds a whole new light on the Scriptures. It is a whole new story. A story that gives these disciples a new way of living, thinking, and seeing.
This is what Easter does. It reframes our story. It shifts the world in which we live. It gives those who follow Jesus, not just something to believe in, but an entirely new creation. This is something certainly worth celebrating, but not just for one day.
If Easter reframes our story that means everyday we are living in light of its hope in the front of our minds. We ought to remember, proclaim, live out, and celebrate Easter all year long as a resurrection community.