Easter 2020

It’s Friday…but Sunday’s Coming

I went on a search for Easter Humor—because laughing together provides an opening for God to get to work in us.   Not easy to find Jokes I haven’t already told you… Then I realized that most of you probably don’t remember from year to year what jokes I’ve told….but if you remember the punch line, just keep it to yourself, OK?

Here is my personal favorite:

A delivery truck driver was driving his route very early on Easter morning—before it was even fully light.  Suddenly a rabbit hops out onto the road and gets hit by the truck!  The driver gets out of the truck, goes to investigate, and realizes that he has run over the Easter Bunny—and he’s DEAD! 

The driver is just beside himself:  Oh No!  I killed the Easter Bunny!        I just ruined Easter for all these children—they won’t get their Easter eggs.  Oh No!  He paced up and down the side of the road.

A woman was driving down the road when she saw the truck pulled over and the driver clearly very upset—so she stopped to see if she could help.  Is everything all right?  She asked.

No, it’s not all right!  I just ran over the Easter Bunny and ruined Easter for all the girls and boys.

The woman leaned over to look at the dead bunny.  She said, “I think I have something that might help.”  She walked over to her car, popped the trunk and pulled out a spray can.  She walked back to the bunny and sprayed it all over him.

To the trucker’s astonishment, the Easter Bunny jumped up, grabbed his basket, and hopped off down the road.  After hopping a few feet, he turned around and waved at the trucker and the woman.  They waved back, And he just kept on hopping, then stopping to wave, hopping, then stopping to wave…

The trucker asked:  What is that stuff?  That was amazing!

The woman held up the spray can so he could read it:

Miracle Hare Spray

Revives Dead Hair…..And Restores Permanent Wave!

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It feels good to laugh right now—when we’re in one of the most serious moments in our nation’s history—in the whole world’s history.   We are in one of the weirdest, most disorienting times of our individual lives and our communal life.  We’re here on Easter Sunday—IN OUR CARS, for heaven’s sake—because it may not be safe to touch each other or even be close to each other.  This is crazy! 

Nationally, the numbers are staggering.  More than 20,000 Americans dead as I wrote this last night.  Surely more than that this morning.  20,000 lives lost, 20,000 families devastated—and it just keeps coming.

Here in our own community, the two confirmed Coronavirus deaths are both related to our church.  Cheryl Stauffer is a former member here—she and her husband Kirk (recovering) raised their daughters in our church.  And it tears at our hearts to know that Stuart Porter—beloved by so many people—this coronavirus took him, too.

I’m sorry, but it kinda feels more like Good Friday than Easter Sunday.  We can definitely identify with the feelings of the disciples during that in-between time—when they knew Jesus was dead—and they had no idea what to do next.  We have that feeling when someone dies—like the world has shifted on its axis and everything feels different—but still looks the same.  It’s surreal.  Off-balance.  Completely out of whack.

We feel it.  Jesus’ disciples felt it.  And in their disorientation, they chose to hide out in a room of their own.  Seems like that’s another thing we have in common—the disciples were self-quarantining! 

They were Definitely practicing social distancing—afraid they might be arrested next.

Yes, we can relate to what the disciples were going through in the hours after Jesus’ death.  The women who went to the tomb certainly weren’t expecting to be launched into a new life and a new understanding!  They came to give Jesus’ body a proper burial.  But the body wasn’t there—and then there are these guys in dazzling bright clothes telling them things they can’t quite comprehend.

They must have been shocked back into remembering the events of two days before.  When Jesus, their beloved leader, had died a horrible and violent death—all while proclaiming himself the bringer of peace.

That Friday was about hopelessness and despair.  That Friday was about grief and disbelief and suffering.  Friday was all about fear and death.  And no one—certainly not these women—knew on Friday how the story would end.

I’ve experienced that kind of Friday in my life, haven’t you?  I’ve been in a place of hopelessness—when even making an effort seemed like just too much to handle.

I’ve been in the depths of grief, and almost wanting to stay there, because the journey out seemed just too difficult.

I know we have ALL been in places of suffering—physical pain or emotional aching or loss of our hopes and dreams—or the fear of our own death.  WE KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE IN THE DEPTHS OF GOOD FRIDAY.

There is a story I love, that I find and read during Holy Week.  It’s told by Tony Campolo, a Christian humorist and author.  He tells about being invited to preach at his church’s Good Friday service, and feeling so honored that they would ask him—a white guy—to preach to their predominantly African American congregation.  His bubble burst, however, when he learned that this was a 3-hour worship service, and he was just one of seven preachers that day! 

But Tony got into the Spirit, and the congregation was rocking and rolling, shouting, “Preach it, Brother!”  And the little old ladies waving their hands in the air and saying, “well,well!”

Tony sat down feeling just about as high as he possibly could.  He was feeling downright cocky, actually, and said to the elderly black preacher next to him:  “Let’s just see if you can top that, brother!”  “Well…let’s just see,” the man said.

That preacher stood up and said, very quietly:  “It was Friday, and my Jesus was dead on the tree.  But that was Friday…and Sunday’s coming.”  One of the deacons called out, “Preach it, brother!” and that was all the encouragement he needed.

He came on louder as he said, “It was Friday, and Mary was crying her eyes out.  The disciples were runnin’ in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd.  But that was Friday…and Sunday’s coming.”

People in the congregation were cheering him on, yelling, “Keep going, preacher!”  So he kept going.  He picked up the volume even more, and shouted, “It was Friday.  The cynics were lookin’ at the world and saying, ‘You can’t change anything in this world.  You can’t change anything.  But those cynics didn’t know that it was only Friday…and Sunday’s coming.”

“It was Friday!  And on Friday, those forces that oppress the poor and make the poor suffer were in control.  But that was Friday!  Sunday’s comin’”!

It was Friday, and on Friday Pilate thought he had washed his hands of a lot of trouble.  The Pharisees were struttin’ around, laughin’ and poking each other in the ribs.  They thought they were back in charge.  But they didn’t know that it was only Friday.  Sunday’s comin’”

 That old preacher kept on working that one phrase for half an hour, then an hour, then an hour and a half.  He just kept coming at the the people saying, “It may be Friday…but Sunday’s coming!”

     

It’s Friday, and human beings are still devoted to war and violence…

It’s Friday, and we are all in broken and hurting relationships with somebody in our lives…

It’s Friday, and some of us have just heard devastating diagnoses and dire health predictions…

It’s Friday, and our children don’t know for sure whether or not this world will ever be a safe and happy place to live…

It feels more like Good Friday than Easter, ‘cuz we are all sitting in cars worshiping God because it’s not safe for us to be close together…

It’s Friday, It’s Friday, It’s Friday…

At the end of his message, that old preacher just yelled at the top of his lungs:  “IT’S FRIDAY!”  And 500 people in that church thundered back the response:  “BUT SUNDAY’S COMIN’!!”

That is the message of Easter.  That is the promise that no matter how bad it gets, there is always HOPE, and God has given us that hope by RAISING JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD.  We have a promise of eternal life—but even more than that—we have a promise that New Life IN THIS LIFE is always, always possible.

THAT’S the GOOD NEWS!  THAT is what our world is waiting to hear.  That’s what WE are waiting to hear, hoping to experience, here on this Easter morning.  We want to know that this long, drawn-out Good Friday of disease and fear and isolation will NOT last forever!  We don’t need a logical argument in support of the Resurrection.  We honestly don’t need scientific evidence of a 2,000 year old miracle.  We don’t really need anything in the past at all, really.

We are here for Resurrection—for an experience of LIFE and HOPE that makes tomorrow possible—and the day after that—and the day after that. 

We are here for the promise that no matter how bad it gets—no matter how discouraged we are—THERE IS HOPE, AND THERE IS JOY—and these are precious Gifts from God that come when we least expect it.

And when we experience Resurrection in our own lives, then we will know just how much our world needs to hear these words of HOPE.

When we experience Resurrection in our own lives, then we know just how much difference God can make—in our attitudes, in our circumstances, in our aspirations and dreams, in our relationships, in our outlook on life.

When we experience Resurrection in our own lives—just like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and all the other women with them—just like Peter, bending down to see the empty tomb—

When we experience Resurrection—then we know the message our world and its people need so desperately to hear right now:

“It may be Friday…Sunday really is coming”  And just like the sun continues to come up each and every day and shine its early light on the Ute Mountain and the Mesa and the La Platas—

Just as sure as morning follows after morning—and light shines once again in the darkness—

WE CAN BE CONFIDENT IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.  WE CAN BE  CONFIDENT IN OUR ALMIGHTY GOD

BECAUSE GOD WILL BRING RESURRECTION OUT OF DEATH AND DESPAIR.

GOD WILL BRING RESURRECTION.  TODAY!  NOW!  ALWAYS!

Hang in there.  Know that you are Not Alone!  Trust God.  The way will open. 

It may sometimes feel like it’s still Good Friday—but it’s not.  It’s Easter Sunday—and the gift of new life is ours.

Amen