As I prepared my sermon for Sunday I came across and old sermon from my days as a youth minister; some of these old sermons are quite comical (and not intentionally so). I did come across the following story, which I am sure I stole from someone else.
A Sunday School teacher asked her class on the Sunday before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter and why it was so important. One little girl spoke up saying: “Easter is when the whole family gets together, and you eat turkey and sing about the pilgrims and all that.” “No, that’s not it,” said the teacher.
“I know what Easter is,” a second student responded. “Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs.” “Nope, that’s not it either,” replied the teacher.
Finally a third student spoke up, “Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb and left for three days.”
“Ah, thank goodness somebody knows” the teacher thought to herself. But then the student went on: “Then everybody gathers at the tomb and waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter.” KIDS WILL SAY THE CRAZIEST THINGS!
This Easter weekend will likely look different and you may miss many of the Easter traditions, like Easter dresses, community egg hunts, and bunny rabbits but the core of the celebration has not changed in over 2000 years. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ died on a cross, was buried in a tomb, and on the third day he conquered death so that we might have life and life abundant. On that first Easter morning, a day that was likely similar to today, the angel said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” The Coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to its knees just as Jesus did when he conquered sin and death and the Good News remains “Christ has Risen, He has Risen Indeed!”
Don’t let the coronavirus dampen your Easter Worship Experience. Let me encourage you to find a virtual community to celebrate Easter with this coming Sunday. There are virtual celebrations you can log into from your own Google machine, even for those of us who are forward deployed, and rediscover the true meaning of Easter this year.
The Chaplain's Anvil 