Hi everyone,
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Not only is Jesus risen, but he pulls the greatest April Fool’s Day joke since 1956 (the last time Easter Sunday landed on April 1st). I’m a bit of a practical joker myself, but we’re just talking little things like eating my kids’ food and wearing their clothes (it sounds weird but trust me, it is hilarious). Never in my life, however, did I ever think about coming back from the dead. That just takes the cake.
While my jokes could be annoying (so my kids say, but don’t trust their opinion because they have no idea what they’re talking about), they are always out of good, clean fun. I only joke with them because I love them and that is how I show my love. At times, when they are angry at me or upset about something (not necessarily because of something I did, but I admit it does happen), I would make a joke to lighten the mood and have them remember the good times and the joy of life.
So I can’t think of a better day for Easter to land on. April Fool’s may have started out as a day of ridicule (from what I understand of the history as told to me by The Simpsons), but it is (at least for me) a day out of general fun, affection, and love.
Christ is risen indeed!
Here is the reading for next week:
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Mark 16:1-8
I often wonder what it must have been like for those first to arrive at the empty tomb (depending on which gospel account you are reading). They came expecting one thing (namely a dead body), but they find surprise, shock, and wonder! I imagine what might have been going through their heads (aside from what the accounts tell us at least), what emotions, fears, worries. I don’t know how often dead bodies go missing back in those days, but I can tell you that it isn’t exactly a normal occurrence these days!
But whatever they were feeling, whatever fear or shock or perhaps annoyance, Christ’s resurrection was out of love. It was because God’s love for God’s children was, is, and will always be so very strong, that death would not be able to contain it. God proved to all of history this love, that even in the pits of the worst kind of evil, in the most gruesome kind of death, in the greatest heights of anger and hatred, God acts not out of vengeance and judgement, but out of grace and mercy. God forgives all this sin and shows us through the resurrection of Christ.
That is the Easter message: That with God, even in the plethora of emotions we go through, there is always joy. Even in anger and hatred, there can be love. In sin, there is forgiveness.
And in the all the pain and suffering of the world, in all the confusion and discontentment, in all the darkness and death… God brings resurrection!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Have a great week everyone!