Letter: Sweetness of Easter lies in the promise it fulfills
If you want to start a lively debate, all you have to do is ask a group of people about their favorite Easter candy. Or, to really get them going, ask, “What’s the best Easter candy?” Opinions are swift, strong, and unrelenting! And there are basically three groups: the chocolatiers, the sugary sweet-tooths, and the Peep people.
I have to admit that, like Ronald Reagan, I’m a jelly bean guy. Not year-round mind you, like the former president, but I do like to indulge with a bowlful of (gourmet only!) jelly beans following the fourth and final service on Easter day. Just before I slip into my sugar-assisted Easter coma.
Candy, of course, has long been associated with Easter. That’s not to say the disciples were feasting on Cadbury eggs on that first Easter Day 2,000 years ago. But as Easter takes place after the 40-day period of Lenten fasting, sweets have always been part of the Easter feast. Even before the advent of processed sugar and yellow No. 5.
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For me, Easter candy is also a reminder that not only is life itself fleeting, so are many of the things we collectively turn into idols: beauty, fame, money. In the end, all of this will pass away. As the prophet Isaiah puts it, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Easter reminds us that the life of faith offers a course correction to our ephemeral worldview. After all, embedded in so much of what we seek out is actually a search for hope and meaning. We crave permanence in a world that doesn’t offer it; we long for meaning in a society that thrives on image. It turns out that, when you strip away all the transitory externals of our lives, faith offers us what life is really all about — hope, meaning, relationship with the divine, forgiveness, solace, healing, and a check on our worldly priorities.
All you have to do is find a community of faith to keep you grounded and inspired, a place to remind you time and again that you are loved by God, and one that encourages you to reach out and serve others. Of course, I’m convinced that Bethesda-by-the-Sea is just that place. But there are many communities of faith to choose from around here! And the 50-day season of Easter (it’s not just one day of chocolate bunnies) is the perfect time to reengage with your faith. I encourage you to do so.
But here’s the thing about that Easter sugar high: for Christians, once the euphoria of Easter subsides, we’re not left with emptiness or a great void but with something that abides. Something that transcends the transitory, fleeting nature of life — and that is our relationship with the risen Christ. That’s what fuels the true joy of Easter, and it’s why the joy endures well beyond the sugary sweetness. Happy Easter, friends.
The Rev. Tim Schenck serves as Rector of the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach. Follow him on Twitter @FatherTim.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Opinion: Sweetness of Easter lies in the promise it fulfills
