This Holy Mystery

I have often wondered why it is that we stop celebrating Easter as soon as Easter day itself ends.  It has just never made sense to me.  It's just like Christmas; you have all this preparation for one day, and as soon as the day passes, we no longer think about it and instead we quickly move on to the next holiday.  I think as pastors we have a responsibility to educate people in the church about our liturgical calendar.  Talking about the "season" of Easter, or the "season" of Pentecost is a totally ambiguous subject for most people.  Schools let out the week before Easter for Spring Break (which by the way, I always hated as a kid, because we could never go anywhere since my Dad was a pastor, and was obligated to be at Holy Week services each night) and as soon as Easter passes school is back in session.  But I think we have it all wrong.  

Yesterday was just the beginning of the season of Easter.  For 50 days we celebrate the risen Christ, with a sense of angst and wondering about what is to come next.  After those 50 days we enter into the season of Pentecost, remembering how the Holy Spirit made it's presence known through speaking in tongues, and other spiritual gifts.  These seasons are important because they prompt us to think.  Sure Christ was risen from the dead some 2,000 years ago, so maybe we have lost the true meaning  of an empty tomb; we think we know the ending of the story and we don't really pause to think about what it means.  The purpose of the season of Easter is to be reminded of Christ's promise, that he isn't done with us.  Christ has promised to return.

As United Methodists, we have a specific set of liturgy that we use when we come to the table for the Lord's Supper, but what I think is one of the most important moments is when we proclaim the mystery of faith:  "Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ will come again."  I would bargain to say that until this line is pointed out in our liturgy, most people really don't pay attention to what they are saying here.  We are saying that Christ will, in fact, return to this Earth.  The resurrection from the dead that we celebrate on Easter is not just something that happened 2,000 years ago, but is something that will happen again in the future.  The fact that we don't know the time or the place means that maybe we should be a little more on our toes.

I think that maybe we take advantage of the fact that we are "Easter people" (as many church signs like to put it).  Sure we are saved by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, but that's not the only thing we need to know in life.  We shouldn't just take that knowledge and go on living our life any way we want to.  Instead, we should realize that God had to do something dramatic to change the world and to break the hold that sin had on us.  This wasn't a small step for man, rather it was a giant leap for humanity.  Without God's saving grace and action at Easter, where would we be?

Hasn't anyone ever wondered why Christ is coming back?  It's because there is still work to do.  Sure we are saved by faith, but that is because our works could never repay the debt we owe because of our sinfulness.  But if we truly have faith in God shouldn't that change us?  Shouldn't that make us look at the world a little differently? Shouldn't we care for God's children a little differently?  What about creation?  We already messed up Eden, shouldn't we be working to make this place a little better?

Easter is about new life, and about a new chance to break old habits, and to be resurrected from our old selves into something new.  How is Easter changing you this year?  You have 50 days to think about it (wink wink).  Be something different and always remember this mystery of faith.  Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ WILL come again!  Alleluia, Praise be the Lord!