The 2020 COVID Easter

I am sitting in my living room writing this on Resurrection Morning, as people in my childhood faith tradition call Easter. To my knowledge (forgive my terrible memory) this is the first Resurrection Sunday I have stayed home from church in my life. My mother used to joke that she started taking me to church nine months before I was born; I have missed very few Sunday services since then in my sixty-eight-plus years.

For many nominal Christians, Easter Sunday may be the one Sunday they attend church all year. For me, this raises the question why Easter is so important to some people. True believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every Sunday, and if they are truly committed, the Lord’s resurrection colors their thinking every day of the week. Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. Easter is really the only celebration on the church calendar that belongs where it sits, despite the hijacking of the name.

Early in church history, in a misguided effort (my opinion) to attract pagans, the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection was named after a pagan goddess, Astarte which became “Easter” in English. The date remained connected to the Jewish calendar and the time of the Passover when the crucifixion occurred. This explains why Easter moves around the calendar; the Gregorian Calendar we follow does not match the Jewish calendar, so Easter floats.

Anyway, it is fitting to celebrate Christ’s resurrection at this time, and it makes sense to tie it to the actual day in history when it occurred. But I wonder why so many of what I call “nominal Christians” give a hoot. Perhaps it goes back to a time when many people in Christendom believed the Roman Catholic church held the keys to grace, and it was necessary to attend a mass to receive that grace as distributed by a priest. It appears obvious to me that there are also quite a few people who sit in a pew Sunday after Sunday thinking they are getting access to the power of resurrection grace while living Monday through Saturday with no connection whatsoever to the Lord of the Resurrection.

This brings me to COVID 19 Easter Sunday. If we believe the truth of Scripture, even though we are sitting apart this morning, we are seated together with Christ in the heavenlies today and every day. I admit that I have had many moving experiences while gathered with my fellow-believers at special Easter services. I even attended a few sunrise services, even though I realize they are a throwback to another pagan rite celebrated by sun worshippers. No matter; gathering together is good and proper. My word this morning is to remember that we are “really” together in the Spirit whether we sit in the same room or not. Our fellowship with Christ and each other is spiritually based, not physically based.

The truest “reality” is the spiritual reality of our existence “in Christ.” The physical universe we usually refer to as real is not the ultimate “real” thing in our lives; God is. God exists outside of our created reality, having created it long ago for His purposes. One day (soon I hope) God will wrap up His operations on this earth as we know it, and He will cause it to vanish to be replaced by the new heavens and the new earth where I believe we will spend eternity worshiping Him. That is reality. That is the reality our Lord suffered and died to purchase for us. That is why we can celebrate “Easter” today even if we are sheltering in place. We know our place is truly in the heavenlies where we sit together with Christ. Hallelujah!