Easter Sunrise Service

March 23, 2008

Dirk Damonte


A group of us clergy were sitting around the other day, complaining about all of you. Just kidding! We weren't complaining about all of you. Just some of you. Any way, Mark and I are part of a clergy covenant group that meets once a month for spiritual renewal and reflection and to explore what it means to be Christian leaders in the 21st century Protestant church. The most meaningful part of these monthly sessions is our check-in time, when we reflect on how things are going, and what we need to do in our own lives to deepen our walk with Jesus. When we met earlier this month, one of our colleagues was bemoaning all the crises that had been coming up in her church, and all the things that were being asked of her, and she said "Can't it wait 'til after Easter?" We all laughed and nodded because we knew exactly what she meant. Easter is the highest of high holy days, and there is much to do to prepare for it. There are other services, like Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and prayer vigils. There are Lenten studies and sermon series. We try to follow our own Lenten spiritual practices. In the church biz, it is a very busy and intense time. We really don't have time for other crises to pop up, or for interruptions that take us away from our planning, or for big issues to develop that pull us away from our preparations. Easter's a big deal, and it's important that we do it right. And that takes planning. So, these other issues, these other problems, these other demands...can't they wait 'til after Easter?

And I know life is the same for all of us. Most of the time, we've got things pretty well planned out, and we have not budgeted for a crisis, or an unexpected visit, or a setback, or a health emergency. Can't it wait 'til after school's out? Can't it wait 'til I retire? Can't it wait 'til the kids are out of diapers? Can't it wait 'til my economic stimulus check comes? Can't it wait 'til after the election? Can't it wait 'til Christmas? Can't it wait 'til...

And you know as well as I do that those are probably the most dangerous words we could ever utter. Because before they have even finished crossing our lips, whatever "it" is decides it can't wait and it does happen and we have to deal with it. And sometimes it's no big deal at all in the grand scheme of life. So the dishwasher broke, so the toilet's leaking, so a filling came out...minor inconvenience, but fairly handleable.

But a lot of times "it" is huge. And there is no possible way of continuing along with life as normal as long as "it" is there.

Well, maybe I shouldn't but I'm just going to say it: "It happens." There's been a lot of "it" happening in my life this Lenten season. Probably in yours, too. And like Kristie said at our clergy group, I've found myself wondering on more than one occasion: why can't it wait until after Easter?

But that's the whole point of Easter. Easter is what breaks in on life and says whatever has happened, whatever is happening, whatever you fear, whatever you have lost, whatever you grieve, however dark the darkness, no matter what you are going through right now...God isn't finished with you yet. God isn't finished with us yet! God's promise is the resurrection promise: that love is stronger than hate, love is stronger than death, love is the final word of God.

We tell the Easter story over and over again, every year, and like the Christmas story, it is a familiar friend, a story that brings comfort and conjures happy memories for so many of us. We go through the Maundy Thursday drama of communion, arrest, and betrayal. We go through the Good Friday saga of the trial, the mocking, the crucifixion. And we gather here, once again, in a cold garden, to celebrate the resurrection. It is a good story to hear again and again. And this is a good place to gather every year.

But by no stretch of the imagination is it a comfortable or ordinary story. It may feel familiar to us because it is so much a part of us and a part of our religious experience. But it is a story to shake up the world. It is a story to shake up our world. It is a story to shake us up.

Because in this story is our story. Who hasn't felt betrayed? Who hasn't betrayed? Who hasn't felt abandoned? Who hasn't abandoned? Who hasn't lost hope, been paralyzed by fear, broken promises, sold out, run away, doubted? It's all in the story.

This year, I have found myself especially drawn to Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday was yesterday. It's that day that falls between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. For Jesus' first followers, it was the Sabbath, the day set aside to worship and honor God. I imagine there wasn't a whole lot of worshiping that day. Not much honoring, either. The one who had pointed them toward a radical new understanding of God, the one who had told them the kingdom of God was at hand, the one who told them God loved them intimately and completely, had been brutally and definitively taken away. I doubt it occurred to them that there was any hope, any future, any anything on the horizon. Holy Saturday was not a happy day.

For us, Holy Saturday is that in between day when we try to get everything ready. In this garden, I wish you could have seen it. Carol tipped every chair on its back so the water could drain off of them since the sprinklers had come on. I had images of you all lying on your backs with your feet in the air! For us, we know that Easter Sunday comes after Holy Saturday. The first followers knew no such thing. They expected Holy Saturday to be followed by the first day of the week, when they could begin the sad task of caring for the body of their executed rabbi.

I think we live a lot of our lives in a kind of Holy Saturday. We are in between Good Friday and Easter. Holy Saturday is a place of numbness, of inaction, of moaning "can't it wait until..." knowing all the while that it can't wait, it won't wait, it has happened and we have to deal with it. The Good Fridays are different for each of us. But the results are the same. We sit on Holy Saturday not sure where to go or what to do.

The good news is: Easter happens! Easter happens! God is alive and will not give up on us or on loving us. It doesn't happen easily, and sometimes it happens at great cost. But it happens. Always.

Going back to the story, notice that Easter happened when Holy Saturday was over and Jesus' followers were moving toward dealing with the tragedy they had experienced. They encountered the risen Christ in the midst of their grief and fear. They encountered the risen Christ and their lives were never the same.

This morning, we can encounter the same risen Christ. Our lives won't be the same either. It's not the promise of an easy life, or a pain-free life, or a life without disappointment or grief. It is the promise of a life where love walks out of the tomb, and is and will be the final word. Once we know this promise it changes the way we live, the way we interact with life, the way we love life.

Can't it wait 'til after Easter? Well, no, it can't. And it won't.

But the good news is this: Easter won't wait, either. Easter has happened, and continues to happen. When we least expect it. When we most need it. Whenever we are open to it. Easter happens. And here it is.

Happy Easter!


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