This is Holy Week for Christians around the world that is leading to the celebration of Easter this coming Sunday.
The Easter message is simple enough. God raised Jesus from the dead. The tomb where his body was placed was discovered to be empty and his disciples said it was empty because Jesus was alive again.
That message was believed and rejected, but as the message of the resurrection of Jesus spread, enough believed leading to the emergence of the religious movement that became known as Christianity.
That movement evolved into what we know today as the church, the community that bears the name of “Christ.”
Perhaps one of history’s greatest ironies is that the church itself has become one of the primary barriers to people becoming Christian.
Church history is filled with stories of the church’s failure to speak and act in ways that resembled the teachings of Jesus in any way. The church has ignored and contradicted the life and teachings of Jesus as much as it has lived up to them.
That’s a major reason why churches in America today sit empty most Sundays even if they are filled on Easter. Christians no longer attend church, less than 25% do on any regular basis.
At the same time, the majority still believe in the message of love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and justice that were themes in the teachings of Jesus. They still believe that treating one’s neighbor the way one wants to be treated is a noble and ennobling goal toward which everyone should strive.
The reason people still believe in these things is because they still believe in God. That, after all, is what Easter is truly about.
Easter is not about Jesus. It is about God, about God raising Jesus from the dead. To believe God is real is to trust that life is born of God, and that death will not ultimately be the final word.
If there is God, by definition neither death nor falsehood nor evil nor anything in all creation can ultimately destroy life or separate us from God.
That is the Easter message, and that is why it is a symbol of hope. It reminds us that God exists even when circumstances would deny it.
I realize that embracing the message of Easter is not easy.
It wasn’t for the first followers of Jesus. That he was alive was too good to be true so they naturally doubted it. Over time the truth of Easter penetrated their skepticism and despair to the point where they became a movement that began telling Jesus’ story.
By telling it the first followers of Jesus were thumbing their noses at the notion that Rome could erase the words of Jesus or Jesus himself from history.
Nor could Rome extinguish the light Jesus had brought to their lives and through them to the world.
By celebrating Easter I have thrown my lot in with those first followers of Jesus. Against all odds, I choose to believe in God, believe God is real, and so I don’t have much trouble believing the God who created life in the first place could bring life out of a tomb.
I have no proof of that. It’s a choice I have made to believe in the Easter message which has the effect of helping me not lose hope in the worst of times and circumstances.
In the last few years I have needed that more than ever.
Donald Trump and the people who supported him early and especially those who still do have caused me to wonder how people who claim to be Christians could be as blind to truth as they are.
They have led me to question the Christian message itself, question whether it does more harm than good, led me to wonder why the church has so often chosen to betray the teachings of Jesus rather than living by them.
Thankfully, the message of Easter has always renewed my spirit and saved me from giving up in the face of the spiritual corruption Christian charlatans have promoted in the past and are doing so today.
Celebrating Easter is my way of once again choosing to believe in God and, thus, to trust in the ultimate goodness of life.
I don’t have to be in church to do that. I don’t even have to belong to the church to do that.
All I need to do is to embrace the message of Easter that God is, and in making that choice I am empowered to cling to the hope that life always triumphs over death, truth always outlasts falsehood, and hope always overpowers despair.
That is a universal message that transcends Christianity itself. Thus, Easter can be understood as a celebration that encompasses the whole creation and all peoples without regard to race, creed, color, or religion.
Thus, of all the days of our lives, Easter is surely a day that God has made, and all of us, all of creation, can rejoice and be glad in it.
Happy Easter!
linnposts.com 
Jan,
The message of kindness, compassion and empathy is worthy and much needed in these times. Your message here reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright’s answer to Mike Wallace about “organized religion:” ‘Why organize it? Jesus said, ‘wherever three or four are gathered in my name, there am I’.”
Peace, my friend and thanks for your many, meaningful blogs over the years.
Gene
Thank you, Gene. Comments like this encourage me to keep going.
I miss your preaching Jan. I need your preaching. Keep preaching, even if you doubt it, b/c I may doubt it even more.
Dixcy, preaching for me is teaching, and in that I will keep trying as long as I can. Happy Easter in the best sense of what they means.
Jan,
This is told as only you can tell it. Your next to last paragraph sums up what Easter can mean for all people!
Thank you, my friend, for making this relevant to those like me who don’t find God inside a building, but believe Jesus of Nazareth showed us how to live!!
Bill Blackwell
Bill, you are not alone and in fact are in very good company. You and Nancy have a good Easter weekend!
Thank you, Jan. Happy Easter!
You, too, Gene. Good to hear from you.
Thanks, Jan! Comforting and affirming! Thank you!
Happy Easter, Joe, to you and Katherine and your family.
It’s now a custom of mine, that each year I go to Winchester Cathedral on the evening before Easter to attend their Easter vigil. This is when the story is told of the exodus of Jews from out of Egypt into the promised land; of the birth, life and ministry of Jesus, leading to his rising again to life eternal. The majesty of this service is awesome, starting as it does in darkness. The new fire is lit, the choir advances up the Nave, the candles, one by one, are lit, and the Easter address is sung. Then, the Precentor shouts out loud the good news: “CHRIST IS RISEN!”. We answer “HE IS TRULY RISEN!”. And then, the lights are thrown…
What has surprised me is that in Winchester Cathedral, there are three services just before Christmas, at which the Cathedral is packed from wall to wall, but at the eve of Easter, only about 30% of the seats are taken. It seems as if the earthly mind has difficulty in comprehending the return of any man from death. But I don’t.
So, from across the pond, I wish you, one and all, a truly happy Easter together.
I share your affirmation of life over death, Nigel. It makes sense because I choose to believe God is real. For me that is the foundation of it all. May the Winchester service once again be the inspiring celebration of life it has always been for you.
Amen!
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Jan, to those of us that are unwaiveringly comitted to the concept of God and to the reality of God, this is music to our ears. I have been spending the last few months delving into the scientific community’s transformation about the real connection between God and Science. There has been a sea change of scientific evidence in the last 25-75 years that show all of Darwin’s theories to be false. Buoyed by DNA and other discoveries about the scientific origin of the universe and of life, older and younger generations of scientists are now making startling conclusions about the connections of science and God. These conclusions all point to now, the reality that there had to be a highly intelligent, eternal, designer of life as we know it today.
Of course, this has been Christianity’s conclusion for centuries. And your statement: “… to believe God is real is to trust that life is born of God, and that death will not ultimately be the final word.”
But your most powerful closing statement says it all to me about humanity’s future: “… that is a universal message that transcends Christianity itself. Thus, Easter can be understood as a celebration that encompasses the whole creation and all peoples without regard to race, creed, color, or religion.”
This must represent humanity’s hope for the future above all else.
Jan, thank you for this beautiful message of Easter.
Best to you and your family at this time of renewal.
John Hamerski
Thank you, John, for this gracious and informative comment. You always have something to say worth reading. Happy Easter. May all of us be renewed this year in our commitment to hope, truth, and meaning in life.
Thanks as usual for your messages of hope, Jan. Love you, Kay
Thank you, Kay. You know I always appreciate hearing from you. Hope you had a nice Easter. Much love to you as well.
Seems that you have a really hard time giving an Easter Message without bringing in Donald Trump’s name. It seems you are obsessed with him, that he means that much to you that you need to bring him into every conversation. And put out the hate, not love as Jesus would. What kind of “Christianity” is that? Where’s the joy of Jesus rising? Where’s the allelela (sp)? Time to extinguish his (D.T.) from your vocabulary and explain Christ instead. You’re welcome.
Easter was weeks ago. I recommend you read my latest blog. It talks about Trump from beginning to end. You will love it!