Waking Up After Easter

Holy Week is over now. With it, our Lenten practices cease and we go back to our normal routines. We could say that this is a time for reflection on what we have learned and experienced during this journey to the cross and empty tomb, but Lent was a time of reflection too. Maybe some of us are ready to be done reflecting. According to the church calendar, Easter is a season that lasts longer than Lent. So if Lent was for reflection, what is Easter for?

Naturally, our first inclination may be that Easter is for celebrating, and this is true. Mystery solved. Short blog post this week…

But then again, this doesn't exactly work. If we are being honest, our joy spikes on Easter Sunday and then starts diminishing into something just above the general contentment we feel throughout the rest of the year. The weather is nice in this hemisphere, so that helps. We can go outside and walk, ride bikes, work in the yard, and generally just feel the sunshine and breeze against our skin. However, as much as we may be happier this time of the year than other seasons, we aren’t really actively celebrating the resurrection the whole time. I doubt it is on our minds for even the rest of April, let alone all the way to the day of Pentecost. We have other things to worry about, spring activities, graduation, cleaning and airing out the house. 

Furthermore, partying for over a month is hard. I’m only 29 and I have a bit of trouble with a six hour party. We can’t celebrate for weeks and weeks. The mood will die down. We can’t maintain that much joy and excitement for that long. Certainly, every Sunday should be an opportunity to celebrate during the Easter season, but theoretically, every Sunday of the entire year should be an opportunity to celebrate. We worship on Sunday because Christ rose on Sunday. Every week is a mini-Easter. 

So what is special about the Easter season after that one special Sunday and how can we maintain it throughout this long stretch of time? While celebration shouldn’t be lost, there may be another image we can use for the Easter season.

I am usually pretty busy throughout the academic year. It isn’t very often that I can just sleep in with no obligations but I distinctly remember the feeling. Waking up well rested and lazily moving around the house without a set purpose. I can play on my phone. I can go for a walk. I can just sit outside and listen to birds singing and squirrels chittering at each other while running around my yard. On those days, the world looks different. Everything moves slower and seems brighter. Flowers appear in my yard that I’ve never seen before. Trees don’t just sway in the breeze, they dance. The usual silence or annoying prattling of the outdoors becomes a chorus of all God’s beloved creatures. Of course, that is only perception. The world doesn't actually become more colorful or joyful just because I am less busy. The only real difference is me. The world becomes more beautiful to me because I can actually take the time to see how beautiful it is.

That peaceful, unhurried time is often accompanied by a slow, natural awakening of the brain. Without being hurried to go get something done or get ready for a class or meeting, my brain can take the time to shake of the lethargy of sleep and deal with the sensations it is experiencing. Sounds and colors are sharper because that is all my brain needs to do. The world becomes renewed as I slow down to move at its pace, instead of trying to run ahead of everything. 

Now, this may all simply be the experience of a young person taking on a wide variety of tasks without taking time to smell the flowers. However, I suspect we have all felt this from time to time. There is a change in how we see the world when we are able to slow down and see the world for what it is, rather than for how it can help or hinder our time management. This experience of non anxious awakening can share the Easter season with the feeling of celebration. In fact, this might even complement celebration in a way that helps us sustain the joy.

In the resurrection, God has done something impossible, inviting us to rethink the world we live in. God’s love and miraculous power is greater than even the powers of sin and death. The dead can rise. Violence and oppression don’t have the final say in the world. This is very good news indeed! And yet, it isn’t really news because it isn’t really new. Just like the sunrise doesn't suddenly start becoming more beautiful just because we are watching it, God’s power doesn’t shape the world just because we have heard about it. The thing that changes is not the story of God’s work. We are what changes. Upon hearing the story of God’s power in the resurrection, suddenly we can begin to see the world for what it really is, the way God intended. 

This isn’t quite reflection. Generally, when we are talking about taking time to reflect, our brain is doing cognitive work. We are thinking, going back over our lives thus far and trying to remember what we have done right or wrong and where God has been in all of it. Reflecting is about taking time for our own personal faith stories and making room for repentance and change within them. However, in the season after Easter Sunday, we can get out of our own way. Instead of thinking, trying to make sense of the amazing things that have happened, we can let them stand on their own and simply look at the world through the new lens they provide. Instead of seeing the world as a bleak and hopeless place, we can see that even in the places of death and despair, God is at work to create hope and new life. 

What we encounter in the miracle of the resurrection is not something that we can explain. We can’t derive joy from our understanding of the event. Rather, we can passively see what God has done and watch what God is doing. Like waking up on a lazy morning, we can wander through life, discovering anew the wonder of the world God has given us, and in this fresh discovery we can find ongoing comfort and joy.