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WHITE BEAR PRESS
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APRIL 17, 2019
Bunny, human suits
I
still remember when one of my childhood friends made a big announcement: she no longer believed Santa Claus was real but she still believed in the Easter Bunny. While her thinking seemed illogical to me, I tried to understand where she was coming from. As for me, I never remembered believing Santa Claus was anything but a fun person in a suit. My theory about the Easter Bunny was built off my theory of Santa Claus. But for my friend, who had believed the Santa Claus story for years until she realized Santa Claus looked, sounded and acted differently at the mall every year, the Easter Bunny offered a more believable alternative. The Story Easter Bunny was rather elusive in the ‘90s. He didn’t show up at Chaser many community Easter egg hunts Sara Marie Moore like he does today. A child couldn’t see the Easter Bunny appears to be a person in a suit, so it could make sense the mysterious bunny fi lled the fields overnight with plastic chicken eggs. I didn’t tell my friend but I was still convinced that the Easter Bunny was also a person in a suit. This week, millions of people around the world will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, a man who was crucified about 2,000 years ago for claiming to be God in human form. The report of his resurrection has caused millions of people around the world to believe his claims to be God and build their lives around his teachings recorded by four fi rst-century reporters: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Over the centuries, several theories have surfaced to try to refute the reporting of Jesus’ resurrection, according to the “Handbook of Christian Apologetics,” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli. First, some people have theorized that Jesus did not really die on the cross but that he was simply revived after resting in the tomb. However, John reported that blood and water came from Jesus’ heart when it was pierced by those checking to make sure he was dead. Death by asphyxiation or hypovolemic shock would cause water to build up around the heart. Others say perhaps the disciples hallucinated that they saw Jesus after he died. However, people touched Jesus after he rose from the dead. He was consistent in his appearance and personality. He appeared to multiple individuals and groups for over a month. Group hallucinations are rare. Luke reported about 500 people saw Jesus at once after he was resurrected. When the Apostle Paul was spreading the report of the resurrection further west, he noted that many of these 500 were still alive, available for questioning. Another argument against the resurrection is that Jesus’ followers and the reporters created a conspiracy. It is not very plausible such a conspiracy could have been perpetrated considering how difficult it would have been to take Jesus’ body from a guarded tomb and destroy the evidence so quickly. Conspiracies are usually found out, especially when a group has adversaries. It is doubtful that 3,000 people in the area would have become Christians within a couple of months if the resurrection had been made up. That a man named Jesus rose from the dead in the Middle East about 2,000 years ago is not really a disputed fact of history. Who you think he was, how and why he rose from the dead and what it means for your life is a matter of personal decision and faith. As for me, I still believe He was God in a human suit. If those reporters got the resurrection right, I believe they quoted Him accurately, too. Sara Marie Moore is editor of the Vadnais Heights Press. She can be reached at 651-407-1235 or Vadnais Heights@presspubs.com.
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I
Easter abundance: more than enough
was in the grocery store the other day, just before the latest, and hopefully last, winter storm. I was purchasing ingredients to make a birthday cake for my oldest son. It was later at night, and the woman at the check-out looked tired. I asked her how her day was going, and she told me that she still had a couple of hours to go before she could head home to her Movers & family. This was second job, Shakers her and she reported Rev. Art Hancock that she hoped to get a few hours of sleep before beginning another long day tomorrow. And then she said these words: “you know, its just never enough… never enough money, never enough time, never enough sleep.” While she was looking at and speaking to me, I believe that her words were intended for a much larger audience, to the universe at large perhaps, or maybe to God. I sensed that her words, spoken from the depth of her being, spoken out of a sense of exhaustion and mild desperation, framed an authentic prayer of languish. A palpable hint of hopelessness
seemed to be lurking just beneath her words. And further, I realized that her prayer framed the feelings of so many of us, at least at this time of the year. It has been a long, long winter. The trees have been devoid of leaves for months and only recently has the ice begun to release its fi rm grip on our lakes. Throughout the winter, our national media has doggedly reported the tragedies of individuals and the many divisions among our people. Each week, most of us experience at least some degree of brokenness in our work or our families or our community. All of this is a reality. All of this can and does lead many of us to experience hopelessness and to feel, like the check-out woman at the grocery store, that there is never enough… money or time or energy or goodwill or love to fi x all that is lacking or fractured. But these feelings can trick us. They can delude us into thinking that scarcity is the only truth, or the predominant truth of our lives. At Easter we are given a glimpse of a different and much larger truth. It is a truth that lies beneath and beyond any experience of scarcity. It is the primordial, foundational truth of abundant life. Whatever else
Easter may be about, it is about proclaiming that the Source of all life, that which many of us refer to as “God,” is with us and for us and is breathing abundant life into existence each day, each hour, each minute, each moment. Even when our lives seem so broken, and even when we feel that there is just never enough, God speaks the deeper truth that all shall be well. The Easter message is that love is more fierce than hatred. The Easter proclamation is that good is more powerful than bad. At Easter, God demonstrates that life is stronger than death. And at Easter we remember that God, the Source of all abundant life, will never give up on us. So, if this day you are feeling a bit hopeless… if you are feeling that there is just never enough… if you are feeling that winter will never end and spring will never come… Take heart and be of good courage. All shall be well. Spring will come. The trees will once again blossom. The waters will again flow. There is more than enough. God, the Source of all that is good and true and beautiful, brings abundant life and offers it to all. Father Art Hancock is the rector at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church in White Bear Lake.
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