Easter Weekend 2022 Springs Up for Us in Boston

Field Notes From a Religion-Less Christian

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

“Watch Out for That Easter Candy”

“….this is something quite different from the popular ‘Easter Joy’ which we know, which is founded primarily in that our soul swings in harmony with the constant rhythm of nature which surrounds and moves through us.” Martin Niemoeller, Easter Sermon, Berlin, 1934

“Our soul swings in harmony with the constant rhythm of nature….” is a good way of describing the feelings we have when things are going well for us, when we have peace and security and serenity. And this is what we commonly think God is here to deliver for us – God is about serving us so we feel good in our skin no matter what. 

Of course God wants good for us but of course, too, we stand in the way. We not only maim and kill the natural world but we also refuse God’s mercy and kill that too. Witness Golgotha. 

What passes for Christian proclamation today is approval and appreciation for our person with little to no recognition of our selfish murdering of others and creation.

God hates us before God loves us. Ok, the Love is primal but our use and abuse of it brings on God’s hatred. And to recognize and admit this truth is too much for us. Rather, we either deny God and God’s existence or we remake God into a divinity that is here to cater to our needs. 

Neimoeller preaches, in the crucible, that our Easter Joy is not because we know that God provides and powers our agenda, but rather that we discover that God’s hatred is overcome by Godself, that God’s hatred is overcome by God’s compassion. Candies at Easter are not only not good for us bodily, but also easily mask the liberation of the soul that is the joy of which the resurrection narrative speaks. Candies are not the problem. I like them too. Just watch out that you take them on, eat them, as forgiveness, not a job well done.