Celebrating Easter
In recent years, I have come to believe that we Christians simply throw Easter away year after year. And I have now become so disturbed about it that I want to plead my case before you, the church.
Easter is about the wondrous delight of God’s creative power—it is about the real Jesus coming out of the real tomb and bringing into being God’s real new creation. It is our greatest festival! Therefore, I think it is all out of balance that we spend forty days keeping Lent, preaching self-denial and being gloomy, bringing it all to a climax with Holy Week, and then, have a single day of celebration for this our greatest of festivals!
To my way of thinking, the week after Easter Sunday ought not be the time when all the clergy breathe a sigh of relief and go on vacation, and the following Sunday no one shows up for church. Instead, I believe the full fifty days of the Easter season should be filled with “champagne”—with scores of Alleluias, and countless hymns, and spectacular anthems, the most dynamic preaching of the year, and the largest attendance. This is our greatest festival!
Is it any wonder that people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus when we celebrate Easter as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? Is it any wonder that we find it hard to live the resurrection if we do not celebrate it exuberantly in our liturgies for more than a single day? Is it any wonder that the world does not take much notice when we, who call ourselves resurrection people, take so little notice ourselves?
It seems we keep Lent and Holy Week so thoroughly that we have hardly any energy left for Easter, except for that first Sunday. During the remaining six Sundays that lie within the Easter season, we have Easter readings and hymns, but little else, when we should be keeping Easter as the real celebratory center of the Christian year that it is. Take that away, and we have nothing left.
Take away Christmas, and in biblical terms, we lose two chapters at the beginning of Matthew and Luke. But take away Easter, and we do not have a New Testament, we do not have a Christianity; and as Paul has said, “we are still in our sins.”
Easter is our greatest festival. We should throw our hats in the air. We should put the flags out. We should celebrate with “champagne.” Christ is Risen! God’s new world has begun! Shouldn’t we, then, be taking steps to celebrate this great season in new and creative ways for more than a single day?
Easter is about the wondrous delight of God’s creative power—it is about the real Jesus coming out of the real tomb and bringing into being God’s real new creation. It is our greatest festival! Therefore, I think it is all out of balance that we spend forty days keeping Lent, preaching self-denial and being gloomy, bringing it all to a climax with Holy Week, and then, have a single day of celebration for this our greatest of festivals!
To my way of thinking, the week after Easter Sunday ought not be the time when all the clergy breathe a sigh of relief and go on vacation, and the following Sunday no one shows up for church. Instead, I believe the full fifty days of the Easter season should be filled with “champagne”—with scores of Alleluias, and countless hymns, and spectacular anthems, the most dynamic preaching of the year, and the largest attendance. This is our greatest festival!
Is it any wonder that people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus when we celebrate Easter as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom? Is it any wonder that we find it hard to live the resurrection if we do not celebrate it exuberantly in our liturgies for more than a single day? Is it any wonder that the world does not take much notice when we, who call ourselves resurrection people, take so little notice ourselves?
It seems we keep Lent and Holy Week so thoroughly that we have hardly any energy left for Easter, except for that first Sunday. During the remaining six Sundays that lie within the Easter season, we have Easter readings and hymns, but little else, when we should be keeping Easter as the real celebratory center of the Christian year that it is. Take that away, and we have nothing left.
Take away Christmas, and in biblical terms, we lose two chapters at the beginning of Matthew and Luke. But take away Easter, and we do not have a New Testament, we do not have a Christianity; and as Paul has said, “we are still in our sins.”
Easter is our greatest festival. We should throw our hats in the air. We should put the flags out. We should celebrate with “champagne.” Christ is Risen! God’s new world has begun! Shouldn’t we, then, be taking steps to celebrate this great season in new and creative ways for more than a single day?
posted by Rev. Jo at 11:11 AM
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