Skip to main content

"Easter is Easy"

Sunday School Lessons can really stick! They inform; they empower! In the hands of a three year old they can create a  precocious theologian who announces on Holy Week that she doesn't understand what all of the fuss is about!  You see I, um...she, understood Easter; Easter is easy for a three year old.  “Jesus got dead.  They put him in a hole, and he got away.”  Out of the mouths of babes… 

Perhaps this is an example of why Jesus said we should have the faith of a child (Matthew 18:2-4).  Yes, there are subtleties about HOW Jesus “got dead.” Was he not really dead? There have been crusades over who “they” might be and how did they put him into “a hole.” Where was the hole?  Then there is the argument/discussion about how “he got away.”     What did Jesus look like after “he got away?”  There is childlike humility in hearing the "what" of a story and living into it.  

Don't get me wrong! Those are important questions to consider as we dig deeper with faith and learn what the Easter story means to us in the  dark places  of our lives, however they are not the “what happened.” Those questions are the how and why…they are not the “what” of Easter.   Neither are they what the story is about.  The Easter story told in Luke's gospel is clear.The story tells us that He, who you killed and buried,  “got away.” To quote the  writer of Luke's gospel, "He is not here,"  (Luke 24:1-8).

What the Easter story is, is a story of victory.  It is epic, and it is so simple that we can discuss it, learn from it, and live through it all of our lives.  

“This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!”

 Festival Canticle by Richard Hillert, Hymns, Psalms, & Spiritual Songs #594. 

Miraculously, a three year old was listening to the sermon and engaged the preacher in a discussion.   That is not so easy, yet because the preacher listened and remembered --their discussion did not stop there.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Second Home

I have moved a lot in my life.  I have moved from Western Tennessee to Eastern Tennesee then back to the Mississippi River banks.  I have moved to Indiana, to Tennessee, to Texas, to Houston (not really Texas--ask a Texan or a Houstonian), to Kentucky, and to Missouri.  Now I find myself between houses in Indiana again. Although it may seem like an aimless life, I prefer to think of it as being in the wilderness.  It's a site longer than 40 days and 40 nights, but I am as ever looking for "Home." "Home is where the heart is." "Home is where you lay your head." "Home is..." All of the above moves have been to a particular church--even the college move. There has been a movement towards being at home in a church community.  After enough moves and enough times explaining where I am from--where is "home"-- I have come up with a great answer.  Borrowing from a children's book by Carol Wehrheim, "God is my home." It is...
2 comments
Read more

Directional-ly Impaired

Holy Promise People, Lent 2017, Second Presbyterian Church  My family and friends know that I am a little bit directional-ly impaired.  I’m  fine as long as the smart phone battery hangs in there, but if I forget to recharge…I could be circling 86 th street for quite a while! Life can feel like that sometimes.  There are distractions, obligations, self-imposed expectations, and competing priorities that can take focus away from the joy of a life lived in God .  Could that be why Lent is one of my favorite times of the church season?  Yes, I love the pageantry of Easter and the Christmas music, but there is something soothing and comforting about Lent that reorients me.   http://maiaduerr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/creditcard-trek.jpg Often people give something up for Lent as a sign of self-denial.  One year I had to have jaw surgery and gave up talking for Lent.  (Really!) I have friends that give up chocolate, sho...
2 comments
Read more

Easter came early this year...

Advent is about journey and anticipation and preparation. Christmas is about a gift and joy and the presence of the Living God breaking into darkness. Lent is about reflection and atonement and forgiveness. Easter is about life and victory and new life in Christ. Pentecost is about the birthday of the body of Christ, the Way, the whole church of believers. That is the church year in a nutshell.  What if they happen within the span of three weeks, or a week, or one night? This year Christmas and Easter collided. Twenty days is not long to go from confirmed diagnosis to  eternal life, but that was my father’s Advent, Lent and Christmas/Easter journey. He invited in friends, family and loved ones to witness his journey. He worked very hard to prepare my sisters and his twin brother’s daughters for a garden moment when he would die.  I have never wished for Advent nor Lent to be longer, but I wished for one more day--one more night--one more morning.  However, ...
Post a Comment
Read more