Easter Sunday

Dear friends in Christ,

Welcome to worship! This morning you are part of modern day history. You probably didn’t wake up today thinking you were coming to an historic Easter service, but that’s exactly what is taking place. Now here’s what’s historical about this Easter. This is the earliest date for Easter Sunday any of us will ever celebrate. That’s probably not surprising, since it looks more like Christmas than Easter! I looked at one chart that calculated the date for every Easter through the year 2124, 116 years. Not once is Easter again as early as March 23rd. In fact, since 1875, there was only one other time Easter was this early and on this same date. The year was 1913. I wasn’t around, nor were any of you. So, turn to you neighbor, shake their hand and say, “Congratulations! You’re part of history!” We can all say, we celebrated Easter on its earliest possible date.

The date for Easter is a floating date. For a long time Christians could not agree on a date for Easter. Still today, a few groups, like the Eastern Orthodox Church, have a different way to choose a date. Their Easter is April 27th this year. But for most Christians, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. The spring equinox was last Thursday, when the length of day and night were equal. We had a full moon Friday, although you couldn’t see it because of the snowstorm, making today Easter.

Because the time of the full moon can vary up to a month, Easter can be as late as April 25th. That will happen again in the year 2038, 30 years from now. So some of you will be around, and hopefully, God willing, so will I, and we will then have experienced both the earliest and latest Easters possible. So put April 25th, 2038 on your calendars as a day to really celebrate.

Now I may be one of the few pastors that cares about such things, but the fact that we’re together on this historically early Easter seems significant to me. It won’t happen again in any of our lifetimes. And as I looked out my office window as the snow was falling all day Friday, I thought, there must be a message here, especially for those of us that live up in the north. And as I thought about it, three things came to mind.

First, this early Easter reminds us that we need to understand Easter as a daily attitude of the heart, not a set date on the calendar. If I had a say in the matter, and I assure you I don’t, I’d set Easter Sunday for the third Sunday in April every year. That would be just about perfect around here.

But Easter is not a set date, and maybe that’s a good thing. It reminds us that the message of Easter, Christ’s victory over sin and death, is not just a set, one day event. It’s a message and a promise that we need to draw upon every day God gives us life. Often, I think, we focus too much on key days of our faith life. Perhaps it’s our Baptism day or the Baptism of our child. It could be first communion or our confirmation. It could be our wedding day. Evangelical Christians make a big deal of that day when they can point to being born again into the family of God. Those key days are important, but what’s really important is how we draw upon those key days, every day of our lives. Easter, as important as the annual celebration is, should not be understood as a once a year thing. It really needs to be a daily event for us, a daily dying to sin and rising to new life.

There was a young soldier who lost his legs in battle. Something died within this young man when he found he would never walk again. He lay in his hospital bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. He refused to talk to anyone who tried to help him. He refused to cooperate with doctors or nurses who wanted to help him to adjust.

One day another patient of the hospital strolled in and sat down on a chair near the bed. He drew a harmonica from his pocket and began to play softly. The patient looked at him for a second, then back up to the ceiling. That was all for that day. The next day the player came again. For several days he continued to come and to play quietly. One day he said, "Does my playing annoy you?" The patient said, "No, it’s ok." They talked a little more each day.

One time the harmonica player was in a particularly jovial mood. He played a sprightly tune and began to do a tap dance. The soldier looked on but was apparently unimpressed. "Hey, why don't you smile once and let the world know you're alive!" the dancer said with a friendly smile. But the legless soldier said, "I might as well be dead as in the fix I'm in." "Okay," answered his happy friend, "so you're dead. But you're not as dead as a fellow who was crucified two thousand years ago, and He came out of it all right." "Oh, it's easy for you to preach," replied the patient, "but if you were in my fix, you'd sing a different tune." With this the dancer stood up and said, "I know a two-thousand-year-old resurrection is pretty far in the dim past. So maybe an up-to-date example will help you to believe it can be done." With that he pulled up his trouser legs and the young man in the bed looked and saw two artificial limbs. The tap-dancing fellow with the harmonica was not simply a Pollyanna preacher. He once lay where that young soldier now lay. He himself had known the power of a resurrection. He had learned to live life abundantly--even without his legs. Needless to say, the young soldier's own resurrection began that moment. That was an Easter moment for him. This early Easter reminds us that we don’t just celebrate a date on a calendar. Easter is a daily dying and rising.

As I looked out my office window at the falling snow, a second thought came to mind. Right now, it still looks a lot like winter. There’s still snow, the trees appear dead, the ground is frozen, nothing’s growing outside. These Easter flowers are beautiful, but they weren’t taken from someone’s outdoor garden. We’ve been given a few, short, glimpses of spring, but it’s certainly not yet fully here. Now I believe it’s coming, but I haven’t seen the evidence yet. I’m living by faith, not sight, when it comes to the promise of spring.

And so it is also with the good news of Easter. No one actually saw Jesus being raised from the dead. Mary and Mary Magdalene saw an angel and the stone being rolled away. But they didn’t see what took place inside the tomb. There was no digital recorder filming the event. It was nothing that could be posted on YouTube for everyone to see.

They did see the risen Lord, as did others like Peter. But for the vast majority of people, the promise of the resurrection was a matter of trusting the word and witness of others. It was a faith event, believing what was said was indeed true.

To this day we walk by faith, and not by sight. We trust that just as we believe spring will come forth from winter and the day will come when the flowers will once again bloom outside, so also we trust that God daily raises us anew, and that one day we will be raised to new life in our eternal home. Can we see it? Not really. But we trust the promise and the 2000 year witness to the resurrection, and that is enough.

About this time of year, late March of 1993, a sudden, unexpected snowstorm blanketed the East coast of the United States. In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, it was the snow of the century. Many hunters and hikers were cut off from loved ones. Included in this group were four medical doctors from Knoxville, TN. who were on a weekend hunting excursion. Since they expected to be gone only one night, they did not bother to give their families the exact location of their hunt. They felt they could take their SUV deep into the mountains and get back with no difficulty whatsoever.

The snow hit so hard and fast it buried their SUV. They hadn’t brought enough food for more than two days. They were in deep trouble. They were trapped. All they could do was wait and hope help would arrive. Evening had fallen on the second day. They were cold, hungry, and greatly discouraged. Would no one find them before they had frozen or starved to death? Then suddenly they heard overhead the unmistakable whirr of a helicopter. They jumped out of the vehicle and screamed and waved to allow the pilot to locate them. And he did. For a moment the helicopter hovered above them. They could see it was already full of other hunters and hikers. Then they saw a basket being lowered from the helicopter. In that basket was a note. On that note was one word: “Tomorrow.” That’s all the doctors needed to know. Their fear was gone. Help was on its way. They knew they could survive until tomorrow. They would live to see another day.

The resurrection is about a hopeful tomorrow. As sure as spring will come once again to our northern climate, God will raise us up from whatever appears to be defeating us. Now we walk by faith. We trust the promise to come.

And as I looked out at the snow covered parking lot preparing for this early Easter, a third thought came to mind. In winter, everything looks dead. The trees, the bushes, the ground, the long periods of darkness, all around things seem lifeless.

It reminds me of the pastor who called the children forward for the children’s message. He asked them a simple question, “What do you have to do to go to heaven?” He expected some of the children might say, “Be good.” He was hoping one or two might say something like “Believe in God” or “Have faith.” What he got instead was a simple, childlike answer. Before any of the other children could answer, a young lad blurted out, “Die.” Well, of course he was right.

But the Easter message is that death does not have the final say. This early Easter, the death of winter is still hanging around. But the promise is that out of death, comes life. Indeed, often in God’s plan, things must die, before new life can spring forth. That’s a hopeful word. It allows us to look at the dying times in life, whether that be something personal or in the world in general, with optimism. The dying is painful, but maybe it has to happen to make room for the new. So we live as people of hope. There’s plenty of bad news every day. The economy is terrible, a major bank crashing last week. The war in Iraq drags on. Maybe you’re in the midst of a personal crisis. This kind of dying happens all the time. But the resurrection hope is that life arises from death. The winters pass and a glorious spring bursts forth. We celebrate that hope this Easter morning.

Well, congratulations again on being part of this historic early Easter. Next year it’s back to a ho-hum date, April 12th. So let’s use this date in history to remember Easter is not a date on the calendar, it is an attitude of the heart. Let’s remember Easter is about faith, and not sight. And let’s remember Easter is about life, overcoming death. That is our hope on this historic Easter day. Amen