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| Along the Way 4-2-10 |
 On a beautiful spring afternoon a week or so before Palm Sunday I stood in the gazebo at a local health care facility, gazing at the decorations hanging from three trees flanking two sides of the gazebo. Every tree was festooned with what appeared to be Japanese lanterns…pink, purple, blue and yellow. But upon closer examination I realized that these decorations were plastic Grade AAAAA Easter eggs hung presumably by a custodian-faux Easter Bunny. The irony was that from the vantage point of that gazebo one could not view the lanterns/eggs without looking through Christmas lights still dangling from the gazebo eave, the kind of lights that are supposed to make one think about icicles. Palm Sunday had not arrived and I was looking at fake oversized Easter eggs through fake icicles. No wonder so many of us are confused about the gospel story. Life might be simpler if we just cruised from Christmas to Easter. The story might be cleaner if we could avoid the Upper Room, the betrayal of Jesus and the ugliness and brutality of the crucifixion of our Lord, but that sanitized story is every bit as fake as icicles in Savannah and pretty pink eggs hanging from trees. We come to Easter Sunday having betrayed Jesus, abandoned him in the garden and shrunk from the horror of the cross. We trudge towards the tomb, expecting nothing more than the final dreary and obedient task of preparing the body for death…and we are shocked by an empty tomb and the slowly dawning realization that life will never be the same. I don’t want to sound like the Grinch that stole Easter. To the contrary! There will be Easter eggs, real and chocolate, and probably a few chocolate rabbits, too, at the Hinshaw home this Sunday. The resurrection story, set within the context of the entire work of God, is not to be missed. It is in our eagerness to leapfrog over the cross that we cheat ourselves and rob Easter of its power. I look forward to embracing this glorious gospel story with you this Easter Sunday…complete with lilies in abundance, brass in fine fettle, joyous anthems and inspiring hymns. Each service (8:45 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) will be preceded by 20 minutes of music by our brass; you will want to be in your place early. We will also celebrate the Lord’s Supper at our early service. We have journeyed through these 40 days of Lent. Now comes the celebration. Christ is risen; he is risen indeed! |
