May 5, 2023
Rethinking Eastertide
“Tide” as a suffix is an old English word that means “time.” Eastertide, Christmastide refer to the time or season that follows a feast, in this case Christmas and Easter. Tide is more commonly understood as a stand-alone word whose more familiar definition is the ebbing and flowing of things, in particular water, like an ocean's tide. The “turning of a tide” can refer to a shift from winning to losing, illness to wellness. It seems both of these definitions of tide, a season of time and the ebbs and flows of life, apply to the season we find ourselves in now, Eastertide.
The touchstone of Eastertide, Easter Sunday, is a triumphant day of worship. In Holy Week we have acknowledged the pain and sin that led to the execution of our Savior, and confess that we, and our world today, are no better. On Easter we celebrate the risen Christ’s victory over the injustice that murdered him, the defeat of sin that Christ died for, and the death that Christ overcame, giving us all a hope in the promises of God. But the world outside the church reminds us that injustice, sin, and death still exist, and it is hard to maintain that Easter joy and hope in such circumstances. Likewise, as the season of Easter marches on, the scripture readings become more nuanced, reminding us that Christians throughout time have been challenged to hold on to resurrection hope in the face of trials and persecution.
Easter Sunday, and all it proclaims, is glorious. And we want to live into the joy of that glorious victory all the time. But that is not the world we live in. Some churches, however, offer a steady diet of glory, with little else. One church in New York City the Sunday after September 11 had no music in their repertoire to sing in worship that was appropriate for what their worshippers had experienced that week. So they sang traditional hymns put to new tunes. On the other hand, research has recently shown that the faith language that people who grew up in the post-9/11 world most gravitate to is lament. And so the worship of many new churches has an emphasis on lamenting the pain and sin in the world. It is almost as if we have two opposite poles of worship, Good Friday and Easter, and there is no middle ground.
The gift of the lectionary is that it offers a “both-and” if we follow it honestly. Martin Luther said you cannot have a theology of glory without a theology of the Cross. Luther’s insight echoed the original Christian term for Easter, the Greek word “Pasch,” referring to Passover. Jesus’ crucifixion and the blood that was shed was seen as surpassing the blood of the lamb which spared the Israelites by offering salvation for all. In the book of Hebrews (for example 7:28-29) we read that Jesus is both the priest that offers the sacrifice and the lamb that is sacrificed; Jesus embodies both Cross and glory. Dying and rising are one event, not two, and this is what is meant by the Passover mystery of Jesus' dying and rising (literally the “paschal mystery”).
Christians throughout time have drifted from Cross to glory, from Good Friday to Easter, and we continue to do so. But what continues to hold this apparent contrast together as one event, is the love of God that made Jesus, God’s Christ, both priest and victim, sacrificer and sacrifice. Christ’s dying and rising, the Cross and the glory, are flip sides of one coin which is God’s irrepressible love for us. Might we have courage to believe this in all circumstances, and to be a witness of hope in a world in desperate need of good news.
May we use this Eastertide to wade into the world an all its messiness, ebbing and flowing around us, knowing God’s love is able to make, if only temporarily, dark waters recede, with the promise that one day they will part forever; a foretaste of glory to come.
Thanks be to God.
~ Pastor Todd