Easter Matters
In a recent column in The New York Times, David Brooks refers to a poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal and NORC which “found that the share of Americans who say patriotism is very important to them has dropped to 38 percent from 70 percent since 1998. The share who say religion is very important has dropped to 39 percent from 62 percent. The share who say community involvement is very important has dropped to 27 percent from 47 percent. The share who say having children is very important has dropped to 30 percent from 59 percent.”
The poll provides interesting data for us to consider as we discern our long-term parish mission. We cannot ignore these trends if we wish to be a vital Christian community in the future.
But as we enter the heart of Holy Week and anticipate our Easter celebration, I’m wondering less about the future and more about the present. We’re putting a lot of time and energy into church this week. Does our worship have any relevance? To put it more bluntly, does Easter matter any longer?
Before you think I have gone off the deep end, let me be clear. Yes, of course, Easter matters. I am not only a priest but also a Christian who entrusts my life to God through my relationship with Jesus, the Risen Christ. While I cannot explain what exactly happened on that first Easter morning, I trust the tomb was empty and that Christ, by the power of God, transcended death. I trust Paul’s words in the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans where he writes “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vv. 38-39)
So, yes, Easter matters. But not only for the reasons above. Easter also matters because it is a mystery that transcends logic and literalism. Easter proclaims that God is much bigger than us, that God’s power is not confined by human concepts of what is possible and doable. Easter invites us to let go of knowledge in order to make room for faith.
As Parker Palmer wrote in his book On the Brink of Everything, “Why have faith, if God is so small as to be contained within our finite words and formulae? To write and live in faith, we must let God be God—original, wild, free, a creative impulse that animates all of life, but can never be confined to what we think, say, and do.” (p. 105)
In a society in which school children are gunned down, transgender youth and adults are made invisible by state legislatures, millions live in poverty and the scourge of racism continues to marginalize people of color, we place our trust in a God who is not confined by our limitations and fallibility. We shout out our Easter joy not because it is logical but because we trust God is “original, wild, free, a creative impulse” who through the Risen Christ is actively transforming this world in which we live.
And remember, God’s power to transform often works through us. As the late Bishop Barbara Harris once said, “We are a resurrection people living in a Good Friday world.” The work of transforming the world starts with faith, with embracing the impossible so the power of Easter can live in us.