Easter Day

April 5                         NOTES FOR REFLECTION                         Easter Day

Texts:  Isaiah 25:6-9; Acts 10:34-43; Mark 16:1-8*

[*Choices have to be made this week.  The Lectionary insists that the reading from Acts must be used as either the first or second lesson.  If it is used as the first lesson, then the second lesson must be 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.  We are also offered a choice of gospel passages: the alternative is John 20:1-18.]

Theme:  Multiple choices here, none of which can adequately cover the wonder of Easter Day.  The phrase that keeps coming to me is "The Glory of the Risen Lord", so I'm going with that.

Introduction.  These readings need no introduction, do they?  However, here's a brief one.  We begin with Isaiah because no one does the Good News better than him.  While tastes have changed – the menu in verse 6 doesn't do much for me – the rest of this passage is great fare!  If you are thinking of getting another tattoo this year what about having the words "He will swallow up death forever" displayed on your most prominent feature?  Or at least stick that phrase on your fridge, computer or bathroom mirror (whichever one you spend most time looking at).  On a calmer note, the reading from Acts is a lovely reminder of the historical stream in which we stand today, which has it source in the simple but astonishing fact that "God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear".  And, for me, the gospel account that best captures the reality of that simple but astonishing fact is Mark's: verse 8 just screams authenticity!

Background.  From the earliest days the great wisdom of the Church has been to treat the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as one continuous event.  Thus the "Triduum", beginning on the evening of Maundy Thursday and concluding with the joyous celebrations of Easter morn, is the core of all Christian worship throughout the year.  We have been reminded over recent weeks that whenever Jesus referred to his coming death he coupled it with his resurrection, and we should do the same.  It grieves me that church attendance is often so much lower on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday than on Easter Day: we will know that we are making progress in growing disciples instead of mere church attenders when there are as many people commemorating the Lord's Passion as there are celebrating his resurrection.

And while on this particular hobby-horse, I can't resist urging those responsible for the liturgical observances on Thursday and Friday to remember the importance of "ending" them in silence, with no formal or informal words of dismissal.  And, please, NO cuppa (with or without hot-cross buns) on Good Friday: all fellowship with God and with one another is broken by Jesus' death on the cross.  Can we not suffer that for a few hours – and then enter even more joyously into its restoration on Sunday?

I have been pondering two stories that seem to me to illustrate the tension between Good Friday and Easter Day.  In the world of today it is never very difficult to find horror stories that capture the tone of Good Friday.  This year we have entered Holy Week with the sheer blood-freezing horror of the plane crash in the French Alps fresh in our hearts and minds.  Any plane crash, with its high likelihood of multiple deaths, is bad enough, whether caused by mechanical fault, human error, atrocious weather conditions, or a combination of those factors.  A deliberate attack, whether by terrorists or careless defence forces, adds an extra layer of horror to it.  But in this case – what can we say?  To learn that this crash was caused by the deliberate act of the co-pilot – that for eight minutes he sat in the cockpit breathing calmly, knowing that he had put the plane on a descent path that would lead, over 8 minutes, to total destruction on a mountain, seems to defy any attempt to put into words the horror of it all.

At some stage all of those 149 other people, including the captain and crew, must have known what was about to happen to them – that there was no escape, nothing that anyone could do.  The Voice Recorder picked up their screams through the locked cockpit door.  Perhaps drowned out by those screams, some surely were praying.  And what more appropriate than the cry Jesus gave from his cross:  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  It is the unanswerable question of every Good Friday – whether on a cross at Golgotha or in a doomed plane over the French Alps.

Until it is answered by God on Easter morning.  So where are the Easter Day stories that somehow answer for us the horrors of our Good Friday stories?  Individual acts of kindness – or even of bravery – never seem quite huge enough to put alongside mass torturing and killings.  We need something, not to wipe out the pain caused by evil, but to put evil in its place – to show that evil is much smaller than we think – to overshadow it and dwarf it – in Isaiah's phrase, to "swallow it up".  Where can we find such a story?

I found one that comes close for me in last Saturday's ODT Weekend Mix, under the title Bottles in the Cosmic Ocean.  It is the astonishing story of two spaceships, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which were launched on 20 August and 5 September 1972 on what were supposed to be four-year missions, and are still travelling and sending back data 38 years later!  The thrust of the article (no pun intended) is to marvel at the ingenuity and dedication of the men and women who have worked on the programme (some of them from the very beginning), even turning down more lucrative job offers along the way.  And there is certainly much to admire at this human level.

But what I found so marvellous is the description of the enormity of creation, as numbers piled up on others to dazzle the brain and silence the tongue, except for splutterings of praise and worship.  The spacecraft have been travelling at 60,000 kph for the last 38 years; that is, they are travelling at something like a million miles each day!  Voyager 1 is now about 12 billion miles from earth, way beyond Pluto.  It is so far away that a message from earth, travelling at the speed of light, takes 17 hours to reach it.  And just when I thought I was beginning to get some idea of the enormity of our solar system the writer of the article turned his attention to the future of these crafts: By 2036 the craft will be nearly out of the solar system altogether and will remain dead, although in perfect condition, probably for eternity.

In other words, continuing to travel about 1 million miles every day it will take the crafts another 21 years or so to be completely out of our solar system!  How great is that!  That is why we start the Creed with our belief in God the Creator.  That is why, even in the depths of Good Friday, as we look in horror at the cross, we know that the victim on the cross is the One through whom ALL THINGS WERE MADE.  Truly we may sing "All heav'n declares the glory of the risen Lord."!  Death (Evil), where now is your sting?

Isaiah 25:6-9.  No doubt Isaiah has in mind the covenant banquet of Exodus 24:11.  That was enjoyed by the elders on behalf of the people.  But the banquet Isaiah sees in his vision is for all people – in fact, all peoples – not just the tribal or religious or political elites.  This is no Davos or other international gathering of self-important people – this is the feeding of the multitude made universal.  And not just the basic needs to assuage hunger – this is a celebratory feast with the extravagant God as host.  And, of course, there is more.  The poet in Isaiah cannot resist the play on words: it is not only food and wine that will be swallowed up on this mountain, but death itself.  The tears of all will be wiped away, and the exclamation will resound, on Easter Day and every day, "This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

Taking It Personally.

• How do you feel as you enter into the Three Days?  Are you able to walk slowly through the whole death-resurrection process, or are you too busy with other things?
• Are you more inclined to give priority to Easter Sunday than to Good Friday?  Why?
• Do you agree or disagree that in some way the story of the Voyager space-craft belongs alongside the story of the crashed plane?  Does it in anyway "answer" the question in the sort of way that God "answers" Job?
• Reflect on some of your "Good Friday" times, when you have felt abandoned by God.  Who or what has brought you through them?
• Which word or phrase in this lesson "speaks" to you most directly at this time?  Stay with it and seek to learn what the Spirit is saying to you through that word or phrase.

 

Acts 10:34-43.  Another passage stressing the universal reach of God's saving work; and for that reason we more often hear this passage in the context of the former Jew-Gentile divide.  But what is important in this passage this week is its clear evidence that a belief in the resurrection of Jesus is absolutely fundamental to the Christian proclamation, and has been from the very beginning.   Peter stresses that just as he and the others were witnesses of what Jesus said and did during his earthly life, so in the same way were they witnesses of his appearances to them after his resurrection, and even ate and drank with him after his resurrection, just as they had before his death.  Verse 37 is particularly important: "That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced".  What message is that?  That Jesus Christ is Lord of all.  No ifs, no buts, no politically correct compromises.  That is the message that Peter and the others were proclaiming; that is the message that has been passed down through the ages to us; and that is the message – the only message – we are to proclaim to others today.

 

Taking It Personally.

 

• Did that last bit grate?  Why?
• Are you more inclined to "edit" the message, than to proclaim it, to make it more acceptable to others or to yourself?
• If someone asks you what Easter means to you, what would you say?
• Do you ever feel like throwing something at the TV when even the weather man makes silly remarks about Easter bunny having a good day for a picnic in your region?

 

Mark 16:1-8.  As a good example of Mark's realism, pay careful attention to the timing in this drama.  It starts at sundown on Saturday evening "when the Sabbath was over".  At that point the women went shopping for the spices they would need to anoint the Lord's body; then they returned home and went to bed.  Why didn't they go straight to the tomb and get on with it?  Presumably, because it was dark.  So when did they go?  "Very early on the first day of the week (Sunday), when the sun had risen".  Matthew and Luke say it was at the break of dawn, but John said it "was still dark".  Who is most likely to be right?  The women were typically practical – even while they were on the way they were wondering how they could get help to remove the stone from the entrance to the tomb.  They needn't have worried: someone had already moved it.  They entered the tomb, and saw "a young man" dressed in white, who gave them the startling news.  "So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."  Almost certainly, that's where this gospel originally ended, before the Church's spin doctors and PR men got hold of it.

 

Taking It Personally.

 

• Stay with the story.  Let it soak in.  Be grabbed by its essential truth.
• Put yourself in their shoes?  What would you have done?
• What will you do about it now?