Easter is the strangest weekend in America. People who have lived their lives without much thought of God throughout the year all the sudden get religious. They get dressed up, the women are beautiful, men wear coats and neckties and they come to church–they bring their kids.
Adults are uncomfortable because church is weird, a lot of the kids are tortured because they are experiencing the full power of sugar laden treats a “bunny” left in a basket this morning and now they are expected to sit still and be reverent when every cell in their body is simultaneously saying, “run, jump, be loud…I want another chocolate!!!!”
Church is strange Easter weekend as well: Some churches convince everyone to show up literally at dawn for a worship service, bleary-eyed and dazed. Then oftentimes these churches share a meal of egg casseroles and breakfast Danishes—that’s odd at least. Other churches spend the whole week putting on elaborate drama and musical productions chronicling the last days of Jesus of Nazareth—trying to figure out how they can make Jesus’ resurrection from the dead seem real and powerful. Other churches have a series of events to encourage their members to be penitent, to experience the sorrow that should be felt concerning the crucifixion of the Christ.
Very few churches do not do something special to mark what is THE day in Christendom.
People who come to church every week and people who come only once or twice a year expect something special Easter week. Both regular “attenders” and occasional “attenders” want to be entertained, they want to be emotionally moved, they want to feel like God is satisfied with them showing up at His house and that God will be ok with them. For some they just want God to be ok for today and for others they want God to be ok with not really hearing or seeing them for another nine months or a year because they DID come; they are sorry that Jesus died; they do believe that he rose from the dead; that they really do want to go to heaven when they die…if heaven exists and their friends are there and they won’t be too bored…
Let’s just admit to ourselves that we are here whether we know it or not because this day is the day when Time says to us, ‘STOP’. Most of us don’t know why, but we do know that this weekend is like the involuntary duck of the head right before an unseen object would strike, or the pause before stepping into the street only to avoid a falling into a dangerous hole; it is the light that flashes inexplicably right before we are snatched from certain death.
It is like our lives are spinning around some unseen axis that we instinctively know exists but aren’t quite sure what exactly that is.
If I may, I want to suggest that this invisible axis and really the reason we are here is because we have this nagging question about life…eternal life to be exact. We stop this weekend because even with the distractions of bunnies and chocolates and egg hunts and big family dinners we are curious sometimes even haunted over what is going to happen when we die.
I pray that going to church this weekend is not just another exercise in meaningless religious activity, nor some emotional boost that is received and that soon wears off. I pray that this weekend is a reorientation of the orbits of daily activity around the axis of our existence: the reality of the crucified Messiah resurrected and in full authority over the hearts of those who belong to Him.
