Easter Reflection

Janet Parsons
First Parish in Waltham
April 20, 2014
Today is a day of ancient stories, myths, and miracles. Today we stand at a religious
crossroads: the Jewish commemoration of Passover and the Christian celebration of
Easter. It is a time of remembrance of liberation from slavery and oppression, a
time of liberation from death. And all around us the earth, frozen for so long in a
monochrome of gray and white, is bursting into an artists palette of color: green
and yellow and purple.
Despite the promise of freedom and of new life, this is a time of recognizing
transitions, and it can be a hard place to stand in. Our winter life was static, routine
it seemed for long stretches that all we did was shovel snow and stock up on
groceries. Now the rhythm of life changes and quickens and we adapt to this new,
urgent pulsing of life, of possibilities.
The ancient Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years. God heard their
laments, their groans, according to the Bible, and commissioned Moses to lead them
out of slavery. The Egyptian Pharoah refused to allow them to leave, despite
repeated plagues being visited upon them, until finally God passed through Egypt
one night and killed all the firstborn children. The Israelites were spared this
devastation because God had warned Moses to have them sacrifice lambs and smear
the blood on the doorposts of their homes. God would pass over the homes bearing
the signs of this sacrifice. Imagine the fear: what if it didnt work? Imagine the
listening for something bearing down on them a sound of wind, perhaps, or maybe
the beating of wings. But it did work. And so Pharoah relented, and the Israelites
escaped, carrying the unleavened dough for their bread in their hurry. Pharoah
changed his mind and chased them to the Red Sea, where God parted the waters and
allowed them a narrow escape into the wilderness.
And were the Israelites happy? After all, they were no longer oppressed; they had
the freedom they had long cried out for. But no, they were not happy. They were
hungry and thirsty. They complained bitterly to Moses. They said to Moses, was it
because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the
wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the very
thing we told you in Egypt, Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? For it
would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
(Ex. 14:11-12)
Freedom is not necessarily comfortable. Times of transition are hugely challenging:
new choices, new patterns of life to adjust to. We can long for the comfortable,
regardless of how unacceptable we thought it was. We dont want to die in the
wilderness.

The Easter story, the story of the hope for freedom from death, also took place
during a short, tumultuous period. Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph on what we
call Palm Sunday, and was arrested and crucified a mere five days later. Two days
afterward, his female disciples went to his tomb, and found it empty. He is risen,
they were told. They were terrified.
Once again, we see people standing on the very edge of a new existence, a new
reality. They are being offered a glimpse of a new kind of freedom: a liberation from
certain death, a freedom they could not understand and that we do not truly
understand today.
In the course of our lives we stand on the edge of new life over and over again.
Sometimes the path of dry land opens before us through the deep water and we can
escape. Sometimes we find that the stone has been rolled away from the entrance to
the tomb and we can walk away. We are given new possibilities, new beginnings.
May you have the freedom to decide what to do at that moment to walk forward
into the wilderness, or to stay, to remain comfortable in the known, or to venture
into the challenge of the unknown. May you know the courage and the resilience of
Passover, and may you know the freedom and the rebirth of Easter.