Do you know what I am going to say now?

A first year student in a Catholic seminary was told by the dean that he should plan to preach the sermon in chapel the following day. He had never preached a sermon before, he was nervous and afraid, and he stayed up all night, but in the morning, he didn’t have a sermon. He stood in the pulpit, looked out at his classmates and said “Do you know what I am going to say?” All of them shook their heads “no” and he said “Neither do I. The service has ended. Go in peace.”

 

 


The dean was not happy. “I’ll give you another chance tomorrow, and you had better have a sermon.” Again he stayed up all night; and again he couldn’t come up with a sermon. Next morning, he stood in the pulpit and asked “Do you know what I am going to say?” The students all nodded their heads “yes.” “Then there is no reason to tell you” he said. “The service has ended. Go in peace.”

Now the dean was angry. “I’ll give you one more chance; if you don’t have a sermon tomorrow, you will be asked to leave the seminary.” Again, no sermon came. He stood in the pulpit the next day and asked “Do you know what I am going to say?” Half of the students nodded “yes” and the other half shook their heads “no.” The student preacher then announced “Those who know, tell those who don’t know. The service has ended. Go in peace.”

The seminary dean walked over to the student, put his arm over the student’s shoulders, and said “Those who know, tell those who don’t know. Today, the gospel has been proclaimed.

If you had been living in the Roman Empire in the first century, you would have noticed a strange custom practiced by the Christians. They would go out to their graveyards with laurel wreaths, the wreaths that had been used in Greek and Roman culture to crown the victors of athletic contests. They would take those laurel wreaths and place them on the graves. If you had asked them why, they would say, "Because we believe that in Jesus Christ we have received victory over the power of death."

Have you noticed the “Easter Eggs” in the shops? They have been there since December 26th! Why eggs? Well because eggs weren’t eaten during the Lenten fast, they were preserved and given to children and servants as a gift on Easter Sunday. As such, eggs were also a staple of Easter meals. In pagan traditions, eggs symbolized springtime and new life. When appropriated by early Christians, eggs came to represent the resurrection of Jesus — the shell signified the sealed tomb and the cracking of it recalled his emergence from it.

And the bunny?

The Easter Bunny likely originated from the German pagan tradition of “Oschter Haws” (yes, the animal has a name), an egg-laying hare that left coloured eggs in the nests children made for it. Also, like eggs, rabbits have long been symbols of fertility and life. Unlike eggs, the bunny has no ties to the Christian celebration of Easter and Jesus’ resurrection.

A four year old child just recently asked her mother in the supermarket, “Mummy, will the Easter Bunny bring me eggs?”, “Yes, I am sure the Easter Bunny will bring you eggs, but remember Easter isn’t about eggs it’s about Jesus.” The child stood there, thinking and then said “Will he bring me a chocolate Easter Bunny as well?” You see, for a four-year old, Easter bunnies and eggs are just way more interesting than JESUS, and they are enough to make Easter fun. The young child will not always be four, and sooner or later--or should I say sooner AND later-  all of God's children, indeed, all of us, will encounter the dark night of grief, devastating disappointment or smothering guilt, and when we do, we will need MORE than bunnies and eggs.

I wonder when that need for more will hit that little girl

    Will it be when she's bullied at school and feels like there's no one to turn to?

    Will it be when she's betrayed by a so-called "best friend" or has her heart broken by the person around whom she's built her whole life?

    Or perhaps one day she'll look in the mirror and admit to herself that she has been the bully or the betrayer or the heartbreaker and knowing she can never undo the damage she's done will make it hard to keep looking at that face staring back at her.

    Maybe she'll be on a mission trip and meet people who own none of the things that make her happy, yet they possess a joy she has never known, and she will feel the darkness of an empty soul.

        Maybe it will be the day she's told by the doctor it's not just a cold after all.

    Maybe she will be spoon-feeding the frail beloved mum who once fed her and whose strong body once gave her piggyback rides, and a sense of powerlessness will overtake her.

    Or will it be the day when her life's work ends with a memo and a deadline for cleaning out her office?

    Or will it be in the middle of a night of family crisis when she's looking into the desperate eyes of her own child and realizes she doesn't really know him and worse yet--he doesn't want her to?

    Maybe it will be when she encounters some insidious systemic expression of racism or classism or some other ism and the human capacity for cruelty will astonish and paralyse her and she will need more than bunnies and eggs.

And that's when we really need to know what Easter is all about.

That might have been how Mary Magdalene felt that first Easter morning. It was just so dark outside; violence and fear hung like a dark cloud over her once adventurous life of following and learning from this meek teacher around whom she had reoriented all of her days. The light that had once shone on her had been extinguished on a Roman cross. Not only was it dark in the world that morning, but it was dark in her soul.   Where there had once been a glimmer of hope, there was only despair now. And while it was dark, she came to the tomb. There in the darkness of her life, she was surprised by the Light of Easter. It is THE STORY WE remember and CELEBRATE TOGETHER IN WORSHIP TODAY. It is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT reason we EVER GET TOGETHER any Sunday of the year or any day of the week. It is the heartbeat of Christian community. It is the HOPE to which we cling and the PROMISE upon which we stand. It is the very essence of Christian faith. It is more than cliché. In the final analysis, IT'S ABOUT LIFE!

EASTER is not a promise that your business or your family or the church or the world will be "like it used to be" or even that your pulse will go on beating forever. It is a promise that the POWER THAT gave you that pulse will never ever abandon you. The power that raised Jesus from the dead can raise you from despair, and that same power is calling you by name and is STILL at work DOING A NEW THING in you and in the church and in the world! Easter is the promise that NOTHING IN YOUR PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE has the ultimate power to define you. YOU ARE DEFINED by the light of God that flows through you and that flows through all creation MAKING ALL THINGS NEW!  

 

Do you know what I am going to say now?  Some will and I hope all will, go out and tell the others who don’t know!