Saturday, April 26

A Season of Celebration

Rev. Brandon Blacksten

Reading

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. – John 20:19-20

Reflection

Many Christians are familiar with the season of Lent and the practice of taking up disciplines or giving things up in order to prepare for Easter. When Easter arrives, though, many of us have a wonderful worship service followed by a large family lunch, possibly an egg hunt and Easter baskets, and then it’s over. We may have heard that Easter is a fifty-day season, but most of us are not really sure how that has any bearing on our day-to-day lives.

Easter, though, is a celebration worthy of much more than a day. It is the center of our faith. Without Jesus’ resurrection, the church would not exist. It is God’s defining act that changed everything. New Testament scholar N. T. Wright puts a fine point on it: “Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity; as Paul says, you are still in your sins…”

In its wisdom, the church has set aside seven weeks for feasting and celebrating the resurrection—fifty days, intentionally longer than the forty days of Lent. For most of us, though, Easter is over, even if not officially, by Monday.

Wright, in his magnificent book Surprised by Hope, describes this problem and suggests ways of addressing it. It’s worth quoting at length:

“I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy, and then bringing it all to a peak with Holy Week, which in turn climaxes in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday…and then, after a rather odd Holy Saturday, we have a single day of celebration.

“…Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom?

“…if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. Champagne for breakfast again—well, of course. Christian holiness was never meant to be merely negative…. The forty days of the Easter season, until the ascension, ought to be a time to balance out Lent by taking something up, some new task or venture, something wholesome and fruitful and outgoing and self-giving. You may be able to do it only for six weeks, just as you may be able to go without beer or tobacco only for the six weeks of Lent. But if you really make a start on it, it might give you a sniff of new possibilities, new hopes, new ventures you never dreamed of. It might bring something of Easter into your innermost life. It might help you wake up in a whole new way. And that’s what Easter is all about.” (emphasis added)

While I’m a bit hesitant to recommend champagne for breakfast, Christians today (including me) would do well to receive this wisdom and spend the season of Easter rejoicing and celebrating God’s victory over death. What is something new you might you take up to celebrate Easter? Or a beloved, life-affirming practice that you’ve let slip out of busyness?

You might sing, read poetry, write poetry (even if it’s bad), make extravagant meals and share them, celebrate and bless the people around you, or plant flowers. You might simply walk outside in a spirit of gratitude.

Courtney and I spent Easter Monday planting tomatoes and pepper plants. (More precisely, she planted, and I dug out tree saplings that were getting out of control—that part still felt a bit like Lent) It’s not a new practice for us, but this Easter season, the plants are serving as a reminder to me to give thanks for the gift of new life each time I water, weed, or walk in the garden. As the plants grow and eventually fruit (we hope), they are a sign of the new life that entered the world at Easter.

Christ is risen, and everything is different. Let’s celebrate like we believe it.

Prayer
God who raised Jesus from the dead,
you bring the dead back to life,
and you long to resurrect
what is dead in our lives.
So often, though, the promise of resurrection
feels hopelessly far off,
and we are afraid to trust
that the promise is true.
Let your resurrection power loose
in our hearts and lives and faces.
Drive away our fears
so that we might experience
your Easter joy
and eternal life—
even today.
Amen.