We don't often think of having a holly jolly Easter. Growing up, Easter was boring compared to Christmas. In my house, the Easter Bunny mysteriously provided during the night a nice basket of candy for Easter morning. But we couldn't eat the candy till we got home from church, and the joy of discovered candy quickly turned into the massive stress of getting all of us dressed to the nines in new Easter outfits, Dippity-Do to slick back my hair (yes, Dippity-Do), long boring church, and then Easter lunch at my grandmother's house. The basket of candy was left untouched till practically 3 in the afternoon. A tragedy! Nothing compared to Christmas Day and the immediate gratification of all day enjoyment of new presents.
But when we think about the astonishing claims that Christians make about Easter, we might consider that we have this backwards. Author Frederica Mathewes-Green talks about her friend Mitch, who is Jewish, and who wrote her the following:
"Looking at the Christmas thing as a man raised in a Jewish home, the big celebration in Christianity should be Easter. No Easter, no Christianity. So all the focus on Christmas, at least to me, seems misdirected. Why Christians don't whoop it up more at Easter is a mystery to me. How inspirational! How joyful! That is the time to toast each other,lay on gifts, attend worship services, pack in the rich food. Something really substantial and holy to remember."
It reminds me of how theologian N.T. Wright said somewhere: "Take away the stories of Jesus's birth, and you lose only two chapters of Matthew and two of Luke. Take away the resurrection, and you lose the entire New Testament and most of the second-century fathers as well." Or as Paul said succinctly, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain."
If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, who cares where he was born? True enough. But as we grow up, life gets more and more complicated. Toys won't do. Sappy silly fun is nice, but it crowds out the radical message of God entering this world to mend it at the very places that confuse and damage us the most. So, perhaps a more serious celebration has characterized Easter for good reason, and Easter celebrated with both joy and sobriety makes perfect sense. Because as Barbara Johnson put it, "We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world."
Mathewes-Green goes on to write:
"Easter tells us something children can't understand, because it addresses things they don't yet have to know: the weariness of life, the pain, the profound loneliness and hovering fear of meaninglessness. Yet in the midst of this desolation we find Jesus, triumphant over death and still shockingly alive, present to us in ways we cannot understand, much less explain. On Easter we will sing 'Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.' It is not a children's song. But grown-ups are taller, and can see farther, and know what hard blows life can bring. Easter may seem boring to children. Yet it contains the one thing needful for every human life: the good news of Resurrection!"
The good news of Resurrection. Indeed. And we will be proclaiming that in many ways over the next few days with our Holy Week services. On Sunday we will be making room for the larger than normal crowds of Easter. By far, our 10:45 service is the easiest to bring our friends to and will be standing room only. If this is a Sunday where you might not be able to bring friends or if you would just like to help us make room in general, please consider the 9:00 a.m. service at Sutter St., or the additional 12:00 noon service at our 23rd St. worship location. Happy Easter my friends!