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Perennially Perplexing Question #312:
Does the Sun Really “RISE” at Easter Sunrise Services?
A "FIRESTARTER"
Spiritual Essay by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Berinti, C.Pp.S.
I was speaking with
someone the other day, and in the midst of reminiscing about our favorite
“Easters,” our conversation turned toward memories of “Easter Sunrise
Services.” (I must be honest—long before our conversation turned “religious,”
we spent more time sharing about chocolate, hidden baskets, hard-boiled eggs and
spiral hams). As I was about to chime in with my experiences and feelings about
these traditional “sunrise” events, my conversation partner slipped into an
almost trance-like mantra, her words spilling over with such unbridled
enthusiasm as she recounted numerous Easter mornings along some river bank or
lake shore, singing “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today!” as the sun peeked over the
horizon. For a moment, I thought I was standing in the middle of some
television commercial for Easter…either that, or some strange spirit had
suddenly taken possession of my conversation partner, leaving me behind to
stare!
As the euphoric recantations of these
illustrious events wound down, I struggled not to ask the question…the
one that had now commandeered my complete attention, but the one I feared to
ask, simply on the basis of not wanting to ruin this important moment of dreamy
reminiscence. But…ask I did!
“In all those experiences of Easter
“Sunrises”—did you ever work at one of them, or did you just “attend”?
As I had suspected, the answer came back a resounding “No!” My friend simply
said, “We’d get up as a family, just a little bit before the service was
scheduled to start, throw on some old clothes, and just appear at the
sacred spot. It was marvelous!”
Ah ha! I knew it…obviously, this
person had never had to prepare an Easter Sunrise Service—all she had to do was
“show up!” That’s the big difference between her reminisces and mine. In my
recollections of these Easter experiences, I was always the one organizing them
or helping pull them off. For me, there was no getting up “a little bit before
the service….” Rather, I’d find myself begrudgingly rolling out of bed around
3:30 or 4:00AM, and then spending the next several hours, usually in the damp,
bone-chilling cold wafting off the waterfront, making preparations for the
joyous crowd who simply had to “show up.”
As I recall those bleak, strikingly
dark early mornings before Easter sunrises, even now I can still taste, see and
almost feel the overwhelming “wetness” of everything. Speakers, microphones and
audio equipment that had to be set up—wet! (Which, incidentally, is not a good
thing for electronic equipment). The prayer booklets, bible, altar cloth—wet!
Even the breakfast foods we prepared on camper cook stoves and served on paper
plates—all wet! Even the coffee we brewed didn’t seem strong enough to wipe out
the oppressive chill and wetness.
And most of all—I rarely recall
actually seeing the sun rise at one of these Easter morning “sunrise” services!
It never seemed to fail that all the beautiful weather we may have had a day or
two before Easter suddenly decided to go elsewhere Easter morning, sometimes
reappearing only several hours after the sunrise service.
No…while the concept sounds
beautiful and dramatic, while visions of massive stones rolling from tombs and
angels perched upon rocks seem awe-inspiring and dreamy—just the kind of things
to jump start a Resurrection celebration…I can’t say that my experience from
“behind the scenes” of many an Easter Sunrise Service left me more convinced
about the Resurrection! In reality, I wondered why God, whose intelligence is
beyond our wildest imaginings, didn’t choose another time of day for this
miraculous, world-shaking event. (After all, even I was smart enough to give up
my childhood enchantment with fishing—simply because I eventually realized that
getting up in the middle of the night in order to squeeze worms onto a hook and
to freeze one’s bottom off was all madness!)
Perhaps, despite the “wetness” that
seems to dominate in any of my recollections of Easter Sunrise Services, I can
still lay hold of the promise of those mornings. Although my
hopes for a glorious, sun-filled, warm, glistening morning were never met, I can
remember the new hope that I’d bring to those mornings every
year. Despite the setbacks of the previous year—the shorted electric cords, the
damp breakfast toast, the frozen egg yolks, the kid who played “Peter” falling
out of the rowboat into the lake, the bonfire not lighting (despite all the
kerosene we poured on it)—I came to each new year, each new Easter morning
clinging to the hope, the promise that something new could happen, something
wondrous could occur.
And this is precisely what Easter
is all about. That in spite of all experiences to the contrary, despite all the
setbacks the world and nature might throw at us, despite the struggles of human
life—most of which we have little control over; despite the string of
disappointments that populate our lives, despite the “death” that lurks around
the corner of all of our plans—LIFE is a far greater force, LOVE interrupts
even the darkest experiences, HOPE is forever being sown in even the deepest
despair-filled moments. Easter, as I have come to see, is not about my
triumphing, about my victory, about my plans
being fulfilled—Easter is about GOD’S PLANS being fulfilled, GOD’S
triumph, and GOD’S victory!
In my experience of those Easter
Sunrise Services long ago, while I never did see the “sun” rise—I surely have
witnessed a life filled with other “Easter” joys—ones in which the true “SON”
rises—over and over again!
May this Easter find the SON rising in your
hearts and souls,
and in the lives of all whom you cherish and hold dear!
BLESSED EASTER TO ALL!
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