Bumpy Easters

Ugly Egg by Kaye Ratliff

Devotion

My Easters rarely go smoothly.  It started with the Great Bonnet Dispute when I was six.  I kept straightening my little sister's hat during church and she kept slapping me and cocking it back at an angle.  Then there was the year when I donned a dress and low heels to sing at a sunrise service...and walked straight into a tree branch that I was usually short enough to pass under.  My family still laughs about time that I took a big bite out what looked like a white chocolate bunny only to discover that my Easter basket included decorative soap. .  No, my Easter mornings rarely run smoothly. 

 I'm not alone in having weird Easter experiences.  If we really look at the gospels, we quickly discover that Jesus's original followers made some downright comical errors as they reacted to the joy of Christ's Resurrection.  Long-time rivals Peter and John had a literal footrace to the tomb...and considering John's defensive statements about who got there first,  there seems to have been a debate about who won (John 20:3-8).  Mary mistook Jesus for the gardener and accused him of stealing his own body(John 20:15).  When the Risen Jesus decided to walk with the disciples along the Emaus road, they didn't recognize him until after they had invited him to dinner and he prayed over the meal (Luke 24:13-35).  Thomas made a bold statement about what it would take to make him believe what the others were telling him, only to have Jesus agree to his terms (John 20:24-29).  My personal favorite comes at the end of the Gospel of John, when the disciples had stripped down while fishing only to have Jesus show up on the shoreline.  Peter got so excited that put his clothes back on, jumped into the sea, and swam to be with Jesus (John 21:7-8).  A disgruntled John and the others rowed the boat in without him. Everywhere we look, people have imperfect and endearingly human reactions to Christ's return.

One of the great things about  Eastertide is remembering all those weird, strange, funny moments. Just picture Jesus chuckling as a sopping wet Peter struggles to shore.  Imagine the moment Mary's face transformed from deep grief to pure joy. And I can just hear the disciples' joyful embarrassment as they suddenly recognize who it was they they had lectured on the road to Emaus.These moments remind me that our Risen Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect.  He meets us where and how we are, and he loves all our fumbling attempts to glorify his name.  Christ knows what's in our hearts even as our joy pours forth in silly and imperfect ways.

This Easter has been more than a little bumpy, and many of us worried that what we were doing wouldn't be enough to truly feel like Easter.   bumpiest one yet for me.  Many of us couldn't physically be with the people we most wanted. What if there was no joy in this year's celebration of the Resurrection?  We had forgotten that Easter has never been about what imperfect humans can accomplish.  It's always been about God does for us by raising Christ from the dead.  We sing and dance and celebrate not because Christ needs us to throw the perfect party for him, but because our hearts are bursting with surprised joy.  That unexpected joy all around me on Easter...even as my Resurrection Rolls leaked marshmallow everywhere and the wind tried to blow away the prayer I left in our garden.  Joy was the friendly dog that interrupted the Sunrise Service a colleague was filming in his back yard.  It was the pictures of Easter dinners-for-one that I exchanged with friends. It was the sound of my two month old niece screaming her little lungs out when I called my sister over the phone.  Easter had come.  And just as he has always done, Christ accepted every one of  us as awkwardly stumbled to his Resurrection.  What we did was enough, because Christ made it enough.

The greatest example of the joy I found this Easter takes the form of ugly Easter eggs.  A few years ago, my aunt had to spend Easter in isolation as she recovered from a bone marrow transplant.  Even cards were forbidden.  As we mourned that we couldn't see her on Easter, my family started talking about when my aunt takes the last boiled egg in the batch and makes it as ugly as she possibly can.  THen, the HOly Spirit gave us an idea.  Family members across the United States spent hours dying Ugly Eggs and compiling them in a "catalog." We emailed it to my aunt bright and early on Easter morning and asked her to pick the winner of our first annual Ugly Egg Competition.  The winner would receive a bar of decorative soap.  Jesus took that silly, stumbling attempt to support my aunt and made it enough to become a joyful celebration of Resurrection.  Christ helped us briefly forget the sadness and anxiety that clung to us as we all called one another to laugh together, share found memories, and dispute my aunt's judgements.  It was a day that I will never forget.  This is what Easter joy is; this is what new life in Christ can bring about.  

And that is why, this year, after a 3 year hiatus, my family brought back the Ugly Egg Competition.  I passed it along to our church as well to see if we would have any takers.  The results are quirky and funny and heart-felt.  Each egg is a winner in its own way, because it a glimpse into the heart of its maker and our Creator.  And Jesus laughs with us as we share in our Easter joy.  I hope you find them as great as I do.  

Ugly Eggs by the Family of Gretchen Trexler

Ugly Egg by Pastor Heather

Ugly Egg by Janice Chandler

Prayer

Thank you, Christ, for coming to us as we are.  Help us always remember that our awkward attempts to rejoice in your resurrection may not always be pretty, but you will always make them enough.  Praise be to you, forever and ever.  Amen.