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WHAT HAPPENED ON EASTER?
Avoidance is what usually happens when preachers are asked specific questions about moments surrounded by mystery. When I hear people talk about "What happened on Easter," I remember one cynic who said, "Something spooky happened that changed things forever."
Frederick Buechner (pronounced beek-ner), however, addresses the question directly, saying, "So, what do I believe actually happened that morning on the third day after He died? I can tell you this: What I believe happened and what in faith and with great joy I proclaim, is that He somehow got up, with life in Him again ... And I speak very plainly here, very unfancifully. He got up. He said, 'Don't be afraid.' Rich man, poor man, child; sick woman, dying man who cannot believe, scared sick man, lost one, young woman with your life ahead of you. 'Don't be afraid.'
"Anxiety and fear are what we know best in this world of ours. Wars and rumors of wars ... everything is threatened or already in ruins. We have heard so much tragic news that when the news is good we cannot hear it.
"But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well. And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of one who has never known a time when all was not well but as one who has faced the cross in all its obscenity as well as in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is like to live separated from God.
"In the end, God's will, not ours, is done. Love is the victory. Death is not the end. The end is life. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen!"
Blessings to you in the season of Easter,
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Lynnewood United Methodist Church
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