EASTER IS NOT CANCELLED!

Easter is not cancelled.  Come to think of it, that has been tried before, in fact right from the start. After Jesus had been buried, the religious leaders of the day persuaded Pilate to post guards outside of Jesus’ tomb because “Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell people that he has been raised from the dead”. (Matthew 27:64 NIV) But of course despite the efforts to “make the tomb as secure as you know how” the tomb was guarded in vain.  No power in the universe could keep Jesus in the tomb.  He came out of it, just as He had said.

In the first century of Christianity others tried suppressing the message of the Risen Christ.  Roman emperors like Nero and Diocletian and others ruthlessly persecuted and put to death many of the early Christians.  But they could neither stop the message of the Resurrection, nor the spread of that message and the growth of the movement that became Christianity. And in the twentieth century,  the 60 years of communism also failed to cancel Easter.

In the former Soviet Union, atheism was the official state religion.  I remember as a child learning about the “underground church” in the various Russian states.  Mao Tse Tung in China also persecuted Christians with a vengeance.

In 2020 Easter is very different, but it is not cancelled.  There is no Easter Parade on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Families will not (should not) be gathering for big Easter dinners. There are no new clothes for people to show off at Easter services.  In fact church buildings  all over the world are closed.  But that cannot cancel Easter.  Christians all over the globe are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ, and worshipping the Risen Christ.  The church, that I currently serve is closed like all others.  But we had an Easter service this morning via teleconference.  We sang. We prayed. And for the first time in my life I preached a sermon over the telephone to a grateful congregation.

Come to think of it, the Christian church has always flourished while operating underground.  In the first century, believers gathered in burial grounds, underground catacombs to worship unseen by others.  Today tourists can go there, and view the graffiti left behind by those early worshipers. And during the communist regimes, underground churches secretly met.  Those cells of Christians later became thriving churches when the restrictions were lifted.  I’m not going to speculate on what the global church will look like when we come out of this pandemic, though many are doing just that.

During the covid-19 pandemic many events and activities had to be cancelled.  Yes, public in person church services have been cancelled for weeks, and will remain so for an undetermined time to come.  But Easter can never be cancelled.  In fact church can never be “cancelled”. The church continues to do what the Christian church does.  We worship. We care for one another and for those in need of help. We pray for one another, for people who are sick and in need, for a world in crisis. And we proclaim the good news  that Jesus is the hope of this world. No pandemic can stop us from doing that. Don’t be fooled.  Easter is not and will never be cancelled!

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