Church of the Good Shepherd

April 12, 2009
The Sunday of the Resurrection (Year B)
Easter Day
Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11;
Mark 16:1-8
(Children’s Service - 9:00 AM)

Do you know what I am holding here? (holding up an Easter egg)

Do you know why it is a symbol for Easter?

What happened on Easter?

Right!  So, why the egg?

Let me tell you a little of what I found out about Easter eggs this week!  The egg has a long history of being a symbol of new life, of spring, of pagan rituals, and certainly of Jewish rituals.

In first century Rome it was thought that “all life comes from eggs” and that was taught as true for scientist and religious alike.

Ancient India, Polynesia, Iran, Greece, and South America all have stories or myths from their religions that say all of creation, the whole world, was created out of an egg.  Our creation story says that God made the world in seven days or that God created Adam and Eve.  But their stories explained the beginning of creation by saying the world was hatched from an egg.

Amazingly that is not far different from modern biology which has explored for many years the role of the egg in the proverbial question: which comes first the chicken or the egg?  And science, I understand, says it is the egg!

So now, can you guess why this egg has something to do with Easter?

Right!  Because life comes from eggs; because from this hard seemingly inert, dead thing, a life springs out.  Seems impossible but it is real!

Have any of you ever seen a chicken hatch from an egg?  It’s wonderful, isn’t it?  First, you see a little crack in the egg, and then bit by bit the chick pecks at the shell until eventually it pokes its whole body through and stands up, its legs all wobbly until it figures out how to walk.

In the middle ages people didn’t eat any eggs at all during Lent.  In fact that is one of the reasons they had Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers so that they could eat up all the eggs and they would be free of eggs in the house until Easter.  And then on Easter eggs were a really big treat!  And the reason they did this was much the same as the other traditions, the eggs symbolized new life.  In the middle ages people believed that an egg laid on Good Friday, if it were kept for one hundred years, the yolk would turn into a diamond.  In truth, it might be as hard as a rock, but probably not a diamond!

And others believed that if an egg laid on Good Friday was boiled on Easter, it would promote good crops and protect the people against sudden death for the year.  And, wow! If you found two yolks in the egg on Easter, it meant that you were going to be very wealthy very soon!

There are lots of other traditions about the Easter egg, and one that I have told you before is the one that the Greek Orthodox Christians like.  It is the story of when Mary Magdalene was in Rome proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus by saying, “Christ is Risen!” to one of the Emperors.  He replied, “Christ is no more Risen than that egg lying in the center of the table is red.”  And guess what?  The white egg turned red!

So for Greek Orthodox people red Easter eggs not only tell of the resurrected life of Jesus, new life coming out of something that seems dead, but also the red of the egg symbolizes the blood of Christ redeeming the whole world!

Have you ever heard of an Easter egg roll?  Well, the egg rolls – I think there is one on the lawn of the White House each year – or there has been – anyway the roll is to symbolize the rolling away of the stone from in front of the tomb.

I think all of these egg stories for Easter are fun, but they are also important because they tell us the most important true thing that we can ever know.  And that true thing is that Jesus is alive.  He was dead, but now he is alive.

I want you to say that with me, “Jesus is alive!”  Amen and Alleluia!

And I want you to hold that in your heart for all time.  Jesus is alive.  It seemed like he was dead in that tomb, and indeed he was.  His heart didn’t beat; he wasn’t breathing; his body had been all battered up.  But he was resurrected, living a new life, an eternal life, not one that was the same as the old one, to be sure, for the people who knew and loved him most didn’t recognize him at first, but it was continuous with this life.  It was still Jesus!

And so I want to give each one of you an egg today.  Now this egg is just a symbol of an egg really for it doesn’t have a shell.  It is made of stone and won’t break.  But I am giving it to you to remind you that Jesus is alive!  Amen and Alleluia!  Say that again!  “Jesus is alive!  Amen and Alleluia!”

And when you are ever wondering about anything, you can hold that egg and talk to Jesus who is alive.  And then listen with your heart to what Jesus will say back to you.  You might hear it in your mind and thoughts or in your heart, but if you sit quietly and listen, you can have a conversation with Jesus who is alive any time.  The egg is a reminder of that.

Sometimes we call that sitting quietly and listening with your heart and mind “praying.”

So, this egg is to remind you that Jesus is alive.  And that is what we celebrate today, Jesus is alive!  Amen!  Alleluia!

Say it with me!  “Jesus is alive!  Amen and Alleluia!  Jesus is alive!”

Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd