AN AWKWARD DATE

For the last several years I have been troubled by Easter. It has begun to remind me more and more of an awkward date. Like I should be having a better time than I actually am; that I should know better this person sharing this significant moment of my life with; and that I should know what to say on such an occasion. 

The first of my many awkward dates, which was in fact my first date, was my senior prom. Which is what makes it a bit awkward to begin with. Actually it was not a “prom” because there was no dancing allowed, instead it was a senior “banquet” at a small Christian school, where Christian musicians would play to a room of preacher’s kids and students expelled from Denver Public Schools. Awkward by definition.

The painful pageantry of the banquet ended only to have the horror of my well made plans begin. A close friend and I planned an occasion to be remembered for all time. We took a limo from Aurora up I-70 to a candlelit dessert on the eighth green on the Evergreen golf course. With the serenade of Kenny G and Michael Bolton playing softly we danced with our dates. I having never danced before in my life had no idea what to do but kept films of “The Karate Kid” dancing inside a shower curtain running in my head. The historic moment reached its climax with my first kiss, well actually the second kiss because the first one I nearly passed out. I did what I thought everyone did when they kissed. She kissed me the second time and I proclaimed… “I love you”. “I love you” to a girl I had never been on a date with before. A girl who would speak deeply back to me, “no, you don’t.” The music stopped, the wind blew the candles out, and I was left standing there alone of the golf green with the wildlife looking on thinking “who is the sad little man who has no idea.”

Easter is the awkward date, which maybe you never had but can for sympathy reasons identify with the rest of us mere mortals that did. It is the awkward moment you show up with thoughts and hopes of a grand occasion but to be honest feel like your date didn’t go quite as planned. We fumble our words. We wonder how we arrive at this important of an occasion without better thoughts. We feel like all creation is looking at us here on Easter thinking “who is the sad little man who has no idea."

TWO SERMONS

I thought about Easter sermons I have heard over the years. Most come from my childhood in conservative churches but a few from later in life at churches with far less yelling. It seemed to me most talks at Easter fall into one of two categories.

One goes something like: Jesus died: followed by historical proof and photos of the actual site (which I was tempted to bring as I have been to Israel and wanted to be approved of by people like Dave who find that sort of thing impressive). Jesus rose from the grave: more proof about the empty tomb and photos. The Bible is true: convincing argument and funny church humor about the Bible. And in closing if you are a CEO here today (Christmas and Easter Only), you should believe this because if you get hit by a truck driving home and you will go to heaven when you die. You drive home and thank God for Easter Sunday dinner and not getting hit by a truck on the way home but if you had that you could go to heaven. 

Easter seems as if it is trapped in a distant past with only a binary reply. What you believe about Easter only matters in regards to either heaven or hell when you die. You are either “in” or you’re “out”. All of the pieces are there. Nothing untrue has been said. But I have little wonder why people wake up or sleep in for an Easter like this. Those who are “in” enjoy a morning of familiarity of stories and responses. They know how to dance and know the right lines. For those who aren’t sure what to say they choose to stay home rather than end up at prom standing near the punch-bowl watching everyone else carry on.

The second version of Easter Sunday is less potentially awkward and on the surface seemingly more enjoyable. It offers Easter as more of an idea, a proverbial breaking out of the stone of the old and welcoming the new. There is no fear of saying wrong words because there is no one other than ourselves to say them to. The death of Jesus is an example for us joined by hundreds of stories of people giving their lives for good causes. His resurrection is a miracle. We are encouraged to believe in miracles. We are politely thanked for being here, encouraged to continue to find our own path, and unoffended drive to brunch, drink a mimosa, and appreciate no one yelled at you. We are left with many questions about heaven, about Jesus, and if any of it has anything do with us.    

One message of Easter grasps the past so tightly it seems unable to recognize the present. The other message is so unconnected and unconvinced to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus it is void of a context in history and provides no clear answer or hope for the future. Both leave you waking up on Monday morning with an unsatisfied feeling. That something is missing, but you don’t know what it is.

Why is Easter so awkward? Why is Easter so much more allusive than Christmas? Isn’t Jesus walking out of a grave at least as significant as being born in a barn?

TWO BOOKS

Two books I have recently read have begun to bring some clarity and shift my view of the resurrection. One is “Living the Resurrection: The Risen Christ in Everyday Life” by Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message. The other is “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright, who wrote “Simply Christian”, a book we taught at TNL last year. Both books offer a third way of seeing Easter.

“Resurrection was something that happened to you after you were dead and buried and then found yourself with God in Heaven for eternity. But Jesus’ resurrection took place on earth. The first witnesses and participants in Jesus’ resurrection obviously weren’t in heaven. They were walking the same old roads over the same old ground they had grown up on and talked and worked on, with the same old people they had grown up with… Now it was becoming clear to them that the resurrection also had to do with them and the ongoing circumstances of their lives.” Eugene Peterson

“Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.” N.T. Wright

Easter is a celebration of the hope and mission of the Kingdom of Heaven. Beyond the independence of a country or establishment of a nation, the resurrection marks the entrance of God’s Kingdom in a new way here on earth. It not only commemorates the past but puts into practice a new way of life.

The new life exists in the everyday. Jesus appears to his friends not for a reading of the Scriptures or religious tradition but for supper on the first night – setting the Biblical tradition for TNL to follow in eating dinner together on Easter Sunday. Maybe a bit of a stretch of the text but no worse than having to get up at O dark thirty because a few women were up while it was still dark out. A meal is the most basic and common of daily activities but in the new reality it becomes as sacred as any service. Jesus walks with others for hours offering answers to questions and shares bread and wine with them. He arrives unannounced for breakfast. On every occasion his invitation is to follow and participate in this new world, this new kingdom. The Resurrection engages and changes our laughing and eating, walking and talking, the present, the everyday. The resurrection is not trapped in the past or only concerned with the future; it changes and creates a new reality of everyday life.

“To put it at its most basic: the resurrection of Jesus offers itself, to the student of history or science no less than the Christian or the theologian, not as an odd event within the world as it is but as the utterly characteristic, prototypical, and foundational event within the world as it has begun to be. It is not an absurd event within the old world but the symbol and starting point of the new world. Jesus of Nazareth ushers in not simply a new religious possibility, not simply a new ethic or a new way of salvation, but a new creation.” N.T. Wright

A NEW ANNIVERSARY

For those who may not know, almost three years ago my wife and I separated. It was only after a near complete death of the relationship and burial of an old paradigm that we began to live a new reality. Looking back at our “first marriage” it was an event based relationship. I jumped from event to event, unwilling and unable to appreciate a daily friendship with my wife. The irony of elaborate dinners or extravagant gifts on “special dates” was there was little relationship in the everyday to commemorate or celebrate.  

Easter, for far too many, is an anniversary just as ironic and awkward as there is little to commemorate or celebrate. It is a date that holds only a handful of stories about how a relationship began. It has few moments to share of everyday joy, present priorities, and hope for future possibility. The new marriage I have exists in hope and practice, priorities and possibilities that were unimaginable before.  

A good anniversary remembers the past by telling stories of where and when and how the thing began. But great anniversary is one in which you are able to soak in the present and look hopefully toward the future. The best of anniversaries begins to escape time and see the past, present, and future in a unified reality. The past is always telling stories and the future is always inviting new possibilities. Between the two a celebration of the present depends not on pageantry but rests securely in the intimate reality.  

Easter is our anniversary. Our anniversary of a relationship established through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If the incarnation of Christ remembers and celebrates the birth and miracle of God coming into our world, then the resurrection of Christ remembers and celebrates the miracle of God bringing us into His.

Easter offers us an annual celebration of God’s Kingdom here on earth. It is an anniversary that tells the story of how the relationship began through the person of Jesus Christ, fills the present with stories of everyday life, and believes in the future hope of the completion and connection God has waiting for us.

Paul writes in Romans 6 his own Easter sermon, which I will choose for the end of this one. “Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.”