Easter, Our Problem Holiday

Well, here in the Flathead, Easter comes as spring unfolds.  There are daffodils, for instance.  And baby bison. Bears have come out of hibernation.  The grass is turning green.

Easter could be about spring, yes?

Except that it isn't about spring.  Not if it's Easter.

We can still have an Easter egg hunt, though, right?

Of course!  That's one of the pagan traditions for the day.  And yes, really, then, well, it is about spring, because in Europe where so many of our ancestors came from, as well as here, Easter and spring come together.  The pagan and the Christian intertwine, and it's all Easter.

But for Christians, it is centrally about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the redemption of humankind.

We can recast resurrection as the renewal of life that happens in spring, but to do that, we would have to make Christ into a god of Nature.  What with the Eucharist, that's not totally out of the question -- the wheat is his body, the grapes his blood -- but we would make a lot of traditional Christians really angry.  And the reasonable-scientific part of our own Unitarian Universalist tradition would probably not like it much, either.  Let's not go there.

Our best refuge is to go metaphorical and shift into a more planetary plane.  I'm thinking global warming is a good place to go on Easter.  A planetary disaster is unfolding in slow motion like the disaster of the Roman Empire pressing down on the people of Israel.  We can have Good Friday, something lost when you recast Easter as spring.  I say, joy is rather pale when not preceded by anguish and loss, and we have plenty of real anguish and loss to deal with.

We need redemption from global warming, for real, and in a physical way.  Can there be an Easter of new hope as we turn from cooking the planet to nurturing it?  Is that worth an Alleluja?

What was lost is found, what was broken is lifted up, and tears of frustration turn to shouts of joy.

We still are not really Christians.  We follow the teachings and example of Jesus, who showed us how to live well even in the shadow of evil.  For us, he does not return to life on Easter, but rather continues to inspire us as he does every day.  Instead, on Easter, something planetary begins to happen, and the seeds of a new way begin to sprout.

I'm going to go there this Easter, starting with Good Friday at the beginning, because we don't have a tradition of remembering that part, and ending with joyful possibilities.  Alleluja!