My early memories of Easter revolved around Easter Sunday only. Sometimes there was a new dress, hat and shoes to sport on Easter morning. We usually attended the dreaded cantata if my mom happened to be in the choir. We always found our way to the Easter egg hunt at my grandfather’s church. He was one of the members of the church who would hide the eggs. I was very young but I remember holding his hand as we walked around during the egg hunt and he would kick the eggs out into the open for me to find. Yes, my grandfather and I had a scam going on and we made a great team. I didn’t find the egg with the big money prize. Grandfather was consumed with the faith that he found late in life and so he had to draw the line somewhere.I didn’t grow up with the practice of Lent. It has been in the past few years that I have come to understand the spiritual significance of Mardi Gras (who would with the emphasis on parades and beads), the ashes on the forehead, the stations of the cross or Maundy Thursday services. These traditions and more were new to me and rich in meaning because I didn’t have years of practice that could have possibly desensitized me to these traditions. My contemplative nature felt perfectly comfortable with the reflection and confession focus of Lent. I helped others experience the darkness leading up to Easter in the different ways that I prepared the altar/stage area for Easter services. I remember winding branches filled with thorns to make a crown of thorns that would hang on the cross. I wept as I made the crown wondering what it was like for the person who had actually made the crown of thorns for Christ. What was their experience? Did they ever come to the full realization of what they had taken part in? Did that person ever experience the message of grace?
Even with the depth that experiencing Lent carried me to it still didn’t take many years before I began to not look forward to it. It was in theology class that I began to understand why. My professor, Ty Inbody, tried to keep his own views to himself but when pushed to share his own theology he did it in two words: death and resurrection. I understood then why 40 days of Lent were too much for me because the focus was significantly on death. The joy and celebration of the resurrection was given one day and then Easter was gone in a moment.
I want and I need 40 days post Easter filled with resurrection stories. I want to think about how my time with my grandfather will be resurrected one day. I want to remember how my grandfather was consumed with his faith and how my grandmother had to keep an eye on him or he would give away everything they owned. I want to figure out how to give eggs filled with prize money to the children who need it. I want to know that a crown of thorns can be a catalyst for transformation.
I want to hear all the ways that death is not the end – but the beginning.
3 comments:
Beautifully said Deb. It's funny. I was reflecting just this morning about Via Crucis and the preoccupation with the Pre-resurrection story. I really think that this is not good for people or the church. The crucifixion makes no sense without the resurrection. With that, I was thinking about the same ideas of a post-easter 40 days. This would be a time of joy, celebration, looking forward, and dreaming about God's government where all people have a voice and are heard by one another. It's a combination of the Via Transformativa and the Via Creativa that Matthew Fox talks about. In Meister Eckhart's 4 fold system, the Via Negativa is given its place but it is one part in the four part system. And even in the Via Negativa, one is focused on the outcome of suffering, not the suffering itself, always with an eye towards the future present reality of transformation. So, how do we do "40 days post Easter filled with resurrection stories?" Let's think together about how this might come together and perhaps we can do something little this year and plan ahead for next year to do something more broad for the community - I am thinking of a post Easter week Via Transformativa/Creativa experience much like Via Crucis but instead of celebrating the way of the cross, we would celebrate the way of the resurrection and the transformed life. What do you think?
I am open to ideas. Is it a website where stories of resurrection are shared? If it's a place, I don't know where that would be but I will keep my eyes and heart open.
Beautiful writing, Deb. I grew up not even knowing what Easter meant. To me it was just chocolate easter bunnies and Reese's peanut butter eggs. I didn't learn until my thirties and even then it was distorted because serving in Children't ministry at a mega church meant mega headaches on Easter Sunday and really no time for my own reflection. There were years when I didn't even make it to the service. Today I was talking with a woman who asked if I would be at church Sunday. She said she doesn't go because it's so crowded. What she meant was that it's annoying that so many people go to church only on Easter Sunday. Truth be told, they probably need to hear the message more than she does and God's willing to use every minute he gets.
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