Easter Thoughts

As I sat in the pew on this past Easter Morning I had lots of different thoughts.

I thought about the small Swedish Lutheran Church I attended the first ten years of my life. It was in the country, 13 miles from the closed town. It seemed big to me at the time, however, when we buried my mother there a number of years ago I realized how small it was. I am not sure it held 40 people. I do not remember one sermon from that time. I suspect there were a couple of reasons. One, I was a little guy. Two, they were really boring.

This Easter, the church was beautiful, inside and out, the service included a choir along with a small orchestra. The pastor’s sermon was both interesting and inspiring.

There was also a children’s message. The pastor said after the children’s message the kids could go out to the patio and have treats. Since Jesus said “we should be like children”, so I wanted to go to the patio and also have treats, but the adults around me, ignoring Jesus’s teachings, said I could not.

We did not have childrens message in my little country church, but if we did, I am sure the message would have been pretty simple, obey your parents or suffer their wrath. I was the recipient of a lot of wrath growing up. Keep in mind, this was before the LCA and ALC merged and wrath was eliminated.

There are well over 2 billion people throughout the world who describe themselves as Christians. I suspect the vast majority went to some type of Easter service.

Going to an Easter service and calling oneself a Christian are not the same. It always amazes how many individuals who call themselves Christians focus on the message of Easter and totally ignore or reject the the teachings from Jesus’s ministry. Teachings which include love your neighbor, the story of the Good Samaritan, and the lessons of the Beatitudes to name a few.

Many churches tell their congregations to tell their members to accept Jesus to be saved. Many of these same churches choose to ignore the teachings of Jesus. It is possible to accept Jesus and ignore his teachings at the same time?

A short time after my father died, I was walking down the gravel driveway from the farmhouse to the road and all of a sudden I could feel the presence of my father telling me he was fine. Some would call that the imagination of a 5-year old. Maybe. But since that moment I have never thought or worried about life after death. But I am always thinking about life before death.

The reality is as a country we are getting a solid F on life before death. We have become violent, cruel, and lack empathy, to name a few. Though we are a rich country, we have reduced food for the poor, reduced access to health care not just in our country but throughout the world. Too many of our citizens worship wealth and power. All the exact opposite of the teachings of Jesus.

We attacked Iran and have killed almost 4,000 Iranian citizens including over 1,600 civilians and hundreds of children. One bombing attack alone struck a school killing over 150 children.

When Secretary Hegseth said the US was fighting for Jesus he was wrong and rebuked by the Pope. Rebuking is something Jesus would do in the face of evil and Hegseth is evil. Trump has said he will bomb Iran into the stone age which means he will kill hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. This is the exact opposite of the teachings of Jesus, but does sound like something the Devil would say.

If you rejoice with the Easter message, but accept the killing of Iranians, the killings by ICE agents of American citizens, or overall brutality and lawlessness of ICE actions, or the cutting of food for the poor, or discrimination against women, people of color, or different sexualities, then I would suggest Easter has no real meaning to you.

Easter is an annual rebirth. For those who want to celebrate Easter year round, it starts with following the the teachings of Jesus of which the foundation is loving your neighbor.