What do you need for Easter?
photo by tiaragwin

I was listening to the radio this morning while exercising, and I heard a very strange commercial.  A well-known one-stop-shopping center was advertising “everything you need for Easter”:  candy, eggs, dye kits, baskets, gifts, toys, the plastic fake grass that gets everywhere and can never be completely cleaned up.  That commercial was a bit disheartening to me, because one completely commercialized Christian holiday (Christmas) is more than enough, in my opinion.

But then I got to thinking:  what do we really need for Easter?  Certainly we don’t need candy, hard-boiled eggs, gifts, baskets, chocolate bunnies, and so forth.  (Although I admit that I do enjoy a good chocolate bunny.)  Those are all extras, add-ons, unnecessary ways that people spend money in order to observe a holiday.

My first answer to this question was straightforward:  “We just need an empty tomb.”  Without the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, there would be no Easter, no celebration, no Christian religion at all.  The way Jesus conquered the grave gives us ultimate hope for this life and for the life to come.

But then I settled on a second answer:  “We need the cross and an empty tomb.”  Without the cross, there is no tomb to be made empty on the third day.  Jesus’s victory over death means nothing if he has not conquered sin as well.

Brothers and sisters, as we walk through the upcoming week known as “Holy Week,” the most important week of the year, let us remember what we truly need in order to celebrate this season.  Enjoy all the trappings of the secular Easter season.  But make it a point to remember frequently the true stories that make this such a celebration:

Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.

–Pastor David

Don’t Leave the Light Switch On

When I was growing up, my brother and I had a bad habit of leaving lights turned on whenever we left our bedrooms, hallways, bathrooms, and so forth. Our parents had to remind us over and over again, for the sake of stewardship of electricity (not to mention the monthly electric bill), to remember to turn off the light switch when we left a room. Sometimes I would get all the way to the other side of the house before remembering (or being called back) to turn off a switch in another room.

We have just experienced the highest holiday of the church year: our annual remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. What a tremendous high point to celebrate! For many churches, including Mt. Haley, Easter Sunday marks the highest Sunday morning attendance of the year. So not only do we have reason to celebrate in Jesus’s victory over sin and death, but we also might feel grateful and energized because the pews are slightly more crowded than usual.

I know that I am new to this role of “pastor,” and in fact this is my first Easter as a full-time minister, but I have a hunch that our attendance will be back to “normal” next week. Some folks choose to come to church once or twice a year, and they may have already reached their quota for the year. I observed something interesting on Easter Sunday this past week: it seemed that each visitor knew at least one of our regular members. The visitors were family, friends, coworkers, people who had grown up in the church as children, and so forth.

In last week’s article, I wrote that the darkness of Christ’s death must come before the light of his resurrection. Now that the light has arrived, we would be foolish simply to assume that the work of sharing the message of Christ has been completed. It’s like when I was a child: I left light switches turned on in rooms I wasn’t going to visit again. We have shared the light with our once-a-year visitors; we shouldn’t assume that the rest will take care of itself! And since we collectively have personal contact with most of the people who have passed through the church doors, we should find creative ways to carry the light of Christ into the places where our neighbors have gone.

On another level, I believe the same analogy can apply to our spiritual lives, both as a congregation and as individuals. We have experienced “Focus 40” – forty days of prayer and fasting – and now the joy of Christ’s resurrection has illuminated our hearts. Should we simply walk away from that light, leaving the switch turned on in the room we only visit on high holy days? I believe it is much healthier for us to carry the joy of the Easter season in our hearts throughout all seasons of the year.

With these two applications in mind, I invite you to read and meditate on the following passage of scripture:

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:1-6 NIV)

–Pastor David

Darkness Before Light

This is one of the most powerful weeks in Christian faith – the week known as “Holy Week,” the set of days that commemorate the final days of Jesus’s life, those that led up to his crucifixion and burial. Within a week of being ushered into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna!”, Jesus was condemned to die via public execution as an example to those who would disrupt the status quo. Of course, we understand that his death had tremendous significance: he was the sacrificial lamb, perfect and unblemished, wholly divine, whose death satisfied the demands of a just God who requires sacrifice to accompany our repentance of sin.

Yes, we always live as Easter people. That is, we live as people who believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, an event the Christian world will celebrate on Sunday. Christ proved his power over sin and death by rising to newness of life; therefore, we too have hope that this life is not the end of the story for those who believe in him.

Yes, we always live as Christmas people. That is, we live as people who celebrate the fact that God chose to become one of us, to live and dwell among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We have the comfort of knowing that God understands our human predicament, and he continues to dwell in and among us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

However, at least for this week, we must live as Good Friday people. We must remember the betrayal, trial, and torturous death experienced by our Lord. We must experience the spiritual darkness of Good Friday before celebrating the marvelous joy of Easter Sunday. Why?

I believe that if we do not fully experience the magnitude of this week’s events, then our message of the gospel becomes truncated. If our message to the world is only hope and peace and joy and victory, then that message will bounce right off of the pain-hardened shells in which people live. Yes, we have a message of hope – for ourselves as well as the world – but this is no mere feel-good message. This is a gospel which has tasted the bitterness of death, which has walked through the darkest valley, which has known the worst that the world has to offer.

Friends, allow the joy of this Sunday to come when it will come. In the meantime, contemplate the magnitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Walk with him through the Garden of Gethsemane, into the courts of Caiaphas and Pilate, and along the long road to the Hill of the Skull. And remember that these dark events have tremendous meaning for God’s relationship with you and with those around you.

–Pastor David