Easter Day

The Observance of a Holy Easter

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to commemorate this great gift of new life by a season of celebration and joy. This season of Easter provided a time for new converts to explore the mysteries of life in Christ and experience for the first time the wonder of Christ’s living presence made real in the sacraments and the common life of the Christian community. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the abundance of God’s grace and mercy.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Easter, by praise, feasting and shared celebration.

For some of you these words will sound familiar, but somehow not quite right. Maybe you recognize the template for these words of invitation to the observance of a holy Easter season. They are a rewritten version of the invitation to the observance of a holy Lent that you heard on Ash Wednesday. As Lent began 40 days ago, we were reminded of some of the characteristics of the Lenten season. In the early church, it was a time when adult converts were prepared for baptism. It was also a time when notorious sinners publicly sought forgiveness and restoration to communion. And thereby less notorious sinners were reminded that they really weren’t in any holier than thou and they had better repent and seek absolution and renewal of faith as well.

And then when Easter came, what a wondrous celebration it was. In those early centuries of the Christian Church all Christians were converts, adult converts, drawn irresistibly to Christianity by the divine spark of new life they saw in other Christians who were their friends and neighbors. The catechumenate, or time of preparation for baptism, was long. The time of yearning and learning could be years, reaching its final and formal intensity during Lent. And then at the Easter Vigil, they were baptized and invited to the Lord’s Table for the first time on Easter morning. Imagine what that was like for them. And imagine what an example it was to the existing community to witness the wonder and joy of the new converts. For the newly baptized this season after their baptism was known as the mystagogia, the learning of the mysteries. Not in the sense of being inducted into a secret society and learning mysterious passwords and secret handshakes, but in the sense of experiencing what the BCP calls “that wonderful and sacred mystery”—the church. In addition to experiencing the living Christ in communion—in the full breadth of what communion means—during the Easter season the newly baptized heard sermons on what it meant to be a part of that wonderful and sacred mystery, the church…. What it means to be recipients of God’s grace through the sacraments, to know God in worship, to live as a Christian in the world. Those weeks after Easter were a season of wonder for them and a glorious time for the whole community. When all could witness and share in the joy of the newly baptized and be reminded of the wonderful mystery of God’s love that they were all a part of.

Easter season begins today. We did not baptize any new adult converts last night at the Vigil, but we did celebrate with great joy God’s wonderful gift of new light and life, given to us all at baptism. Easter season lasts for 50 days, from today, Easter Day, until Pentecost. After Pentecost, we return to what the church calls “ordinary time.” These are the Great Fifty Days of Easter. We use the word “Great” sparingly in the church. So it means something. The Great Fifty Days of Easter.

We have, of course, just spent forty long days in Lent. Not called “great,” incidentally, the forty days of Lent. The Rev. Boone Porter was a prominent American liturgist who had a major role in developing the current Book of Common Prayer. Around the time it was published, he noted, “It is a strange irony that many church people try faithfully during Lent to observe forty days of preparation, yet virtually abandon Eastertide after going to church on Easter Day.” It is a strange irony. We may not exactly look forward to Lent, but we do try to live it faithfully. And we pretty much know how to do Lent. The church’s invitation to the observance of a holy Lent makes sense. And practices like self-examination and repentance; prayer, fasting and self-denial certainly feel religious. So they must be good practices for faithful Christians to undertake.

But why, as Porter suggests, are we so prone to abandon Eastertide after this morning? It is ironic that we seem more inclined to commit ourselves to enduring the 40 days of Lent than we are to celebrating the great 50 days of Easter. Maybe we’ve all lost a bit of the true wonder and awe of God’s grace and mercy. Maybe the value of God’s resurrection gift has depreciated over time since the first centuries of the church. Or maybe we in the church just haven’t done a good enough job of highlighting holy practices of celebration. I wonder if celebration just doesn’t feel religious or holy enough. Celebrating is a secular thing you do when you land a great job or win the final four. We know how to do that sort of celebrating, but it doesn’t feel sacred like fasting or penitence.

Whatever the reasons for our lackluster interest in Easter season in the past, today is a new day. Today is Easter day. Today is Day One in the 2010 Great Fifty Days of Easter. And I invite you to the celebration of a holy Easter season.

Even if you individually didn’t do much by the forty days of Lent, now it’s time for all of us to celebrate the holy season of Easter. Even those of us who did endeavor to keep a holy Lent need to be reminded that Lent doesn’t earn us Easter. Lent brings rich blessings, and it can help us prepare ourselves for Easter; but it doesn’t earn us Easter. God gives us Easter. All of us. And all of us have fifty great days of Eastertide ahead of us.

So I invite you all to keep a holy Easter season with practices of praise, feasting and shared celebration. In Lent we are called to prayer, fasting and self-denial as practices that take us out of ourselves and help us focus on our need for God and our dependence upon God’s gifts and mercy. It seems to be that the practices of praise, feasting and shared celebration are also practices that take us out of ourselves. Practices that take us out of ourselves in joyful gratitude for God’s abundant gifts and blessing given to us. Easter “disciplines”, holy practices, of praise, feasting, and shared celebration.

Praise God. Sing songs of praise to God. Raise voices in praise to God. Praise God, as the Prayer Book says, for “the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.” Offer praise. Outloud. Daily during the great fifty days. A different translation of today’s psalm concludes, “This is a day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Some of you really want to sing those words. Sing praise this Easter season.

Holy practices of praise, feasting and shared celebration. Feasting, as a holy practice, is all about taking pleasure in the holy. The holy practice of feasting is not about eating or drinking large quantities. Although being grateful for abundance is a good thing. Feasting is about taking pleasure in God’s gifts. It is about noticing and cherishing God’s good gifts of food and friends and family and beauty. Enjoying and cherishing God’s good gifts. The Eucharist, of course, is a feast. Come join the Lord’s feast often these great fifty days. A meal with the first fresh peas from the garden is a feast. Enjoy God’s gifts. Any meal shared in love is a feast. Enjoying and cherishing God’s good gifts. Feasting our eyes and ears on God’s gifts is a holy practice. Listen to lots of Mozart. Walk along the lakeshore. Resolve to listen to the Hallelujah chorus every Sunday in Easter.

Mindful of my own sermon, this morning I cracked open a new jar of chokecherry jelly. Chokecherries grow wild out west and must be picked by hand. And the jelly made at home. It has a wonderful flavor, that brings me special pleasure and also evokes, for me, the grandeur of the western mountains and God’s creation. Chokecherry jelly and toast is a feast. What feast will you keep throughout this Easter season?

Finally, shared celebration. Celebration is infectious. If we really celebrate Easter resurrection, we can’t help but share that celebration. God’s Easter gift knows no limit. Part of sharing that gift the gift of resurrection means doing mission and outreach. Sharing new life with people who need new life. Shared celebration also means coming together in fellowship with other Easter people. In God’s math, when just two or three are gathered in his name, the glorious company of all the saints in light are there, too. Just by gathering, by sharing Easter joy, our celebration becomes glorious across all time and space. We become a part of eternity. Gather together as Easter people to share the celebration that he is risen.

The Great Fifty Days of Easter have begun. I invite you, in the name of the church, to the celebration of a holy Easter season, by praise, feasting and shared celebration! Alleluia!