Easter Co-exists with Every Situation

Easter Sunday     A   April 12, 2020     

Acts 10:34-43  Psalm118:1-2,14-24

Colossians 3:1-4 Matthew 28:1-10

Lectionary Link

We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our Song.  We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our Song.

Easter is our chief identity as Christians and Alleluia is one of our favorite words.  We were an Easter people during the season of Lent, but we fasted from the word, Alleluia.  We did that voluntarily, but in these past weeks the growing threat of coronavirus pandemic has forced upon all sorts of involuntary fasting.

We have had to fast from many, many things that we have been taking for granted.  Imagine, giving up attending church during Lent.  What kind of discipline is that?  We’ve had to fast from each other; we have had to maintain social distance.  We’ve had to fast from going to work,  and for some, fast from receiving paychecks.

Just as we are Easter people when we fast during Lent, so too we are still Easter people in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic.  And how are we proving that we are Easter people during this pandemic?

By caring for one another.  By restructuring our economic infrastructures for the survival of people.  By redirecting our resources so that all can have enough. By redirecting our modes of production so that our medical professional can have enough of the protective supplies and ventilators for their patients.  We are an Easter people in the midst of the pandemic.

On the first Easter morning when the women and men disciples and friends of Jesus were in mourning over his death, they were confronted with his reappearances.  They were shocked by his re-appearances.  They were baffled by his re-appearances.  They could not believe that someone actually beat death.  How is that possible that someone beat death?  Outlived death?

How is it possible that someone proved that there is a kind of personal continuity of one’s life after he or she has died.  Unbelievable.  Baffling.

But slowly and with confidence those early friends of Jesus began to accept the hopeful promise which the re-appearances of Jesus gave them.

And what happened to them?  They took on their new identity.  They became Easter people.  And they invited many, many more people to become Easter people.  And God’s Holy Spirit had this way of confirming in new and more people this Easter identity, this experience of the eternality of one’s soul.

And the Easter people spread throughout the cities of the Roman Empire because the hope was unstoppable for all kinds of people, Jews, and every sort of resident in the cities of the Roman Empire.

But just because the friends of Jesus became Easter people, did their troubles stop?  Not at all.  They had to live and move under the radar for many years to avoid persecution and martyrdom.  Those early Easter people did not rise to the top of the Empire with immediate social status.

One can still be Easter people and live in hardships.  The first Easter did not make the hardships of the world go away.  In a world of freedom, the freedom of the resurrection appearance of Jesus to occur, changed the world.  These post-resurrection appearances gave witness, an anecdotal testimony, to what everyone wants to believe.

Everyone wants to believe that there is no end to one’s personal identity after one dies, especially since we know that most people will be forgotten within a few generations after one dies.

The first Easter did not so much change the conditions of the world, as it changed the hearts of people who began to act with hope.  And people who
act with hope, change their world with optimism, even when everything is not going well, even when there is a worldwide pandemic.

Easter will co-exist with the rest of human history.  Easter co-exists with the experience of the coronavirus and all its devastating effects.

Good and ills are going to come and go, and Easter is going to be with us, no matter what.

We celebrate Easter today to be renewed in our primary identity in life, which is to be Easter people.  In creation, God planted eternity as an image upon us, we have spent lots of time in our times living in alienation from the eternal image of God upon our lives.

And Easter, helps us to find and express our true nature even in the middle of nature which throws at us lots of diverse experiences, including a global pandemic.   Alleluia.  Christ is Risen.  And Christ says to us.  You are an Easter people and alleluia is your song, and especially now in the middle of this global pandemic.

Let us go forth today as renewed Easter people and let us teach our alleluia song to as many people as we can.  Amen