is easter early this year? no, and it's only starting.

easter is the only holy day we have that is outside of regular, calendar, time. sometimes well-intended folk want to "set" the date of easter (usually as march 25, which is the traditional date of the crucifixion of our lord). but easter actually is dated within a cosmic understanding of time: it is the first sunday after the full moon after the spring equinox; it is within the time of the sun and of the moon, and of creation. it is the eighth day, the day as st. matthew says, "when all things are made new." (matthew 18:28, jerusalem bible) if you saw mel gibson's the passion of the christ, remember the scene in which jesus meets his mother as he carries his cross. "look, mother," he says, "i am making all things new.

all things. "from the beginning until now . . . all creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth . . . ." (romans 8:22) the recreation has begun--the word matthew uses is palingenesis--literally a re-genesis. the new creation is not finished. as the writer to the hebrews said, "at present, it is true, we are not able to see that everything has been put under [jesus'] command, but we do see in jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendor because he submitted to death." (2:8-9) jesus has led us into the new creation, the promised land of the kingdom of god, the sabbath rest, but we are still like the children of israel who were led out of egypt into the promised land, through the jordan, by joshua. (jesus is of course the greek spelling of joshua.) we are still weak compared to what seem to be giants in the land. but, "the spirit, too, comes to help us in our weakness." (romans 8:26)

and so our easter celebration continues, not just the one sunday but through the great fifty days of the pentecost ("pentecost" means counting to fifty), until we are all filled with the holy spirit. (acts 2) the early church celebrated this fifty days as one continuous feast, singing alleluias each day, standing at prayer, reading the book of acts to remind them of their role in the birth of the new world. our fore-fathers and -mothers in the faith recognized that their salvation--our salvation--was accomplished by the entire work of christ: incarnation, death, burial, descent into hell, resurrection, ascension into heaven to sit at the right hand of the father, and sending his holy spirit.

"with so many witnesses in a great cloud on every side of us, we too, then, should throw off everything that hinders us, especially the sin that clings so easily, and keep running steadily in the race we have started. let us not lose sight of jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection; for the sake of the joy which is still in the future, he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from now on has taken his place at the right of god's throne." (hebrews 12:1-2)