More than Just Chocolate…

By Rev Ed Hird

Once every year, billions of people around the world pause to remember the mystery of Easter. Most people love Easter: bunnies, chocolate, eggs, bonnets, lilies, flower crosses, and joyful singing. In the air, you can sense victory and resurrection and new life. No wonder that churches have many visitors on Easter Sunday.

 

For sixty-six years, the St. Simon’s NV family has been celebrating Easter.  I have always enjoyed Easter, especially for the chocolate.  Just like Christmas, Easter has its food connection and its spiritual connection.  Most people love to eat.  Easter family gatherings invariably involve lots of delicious food, especially those wonderful hot cross buns.

 

Good Friday is a traditional fast day where many choose not to eat in order to remember Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins.  Easter Sunday is a traditional feast day where families celebrate with delicious feasts.   Without Good Friday, Easter Sunday makes no sense.  Without Easter Sunday, Good Friday is just a terrible tragedy.  Good Friday shows that God can turn everything that is against us to our advantage. God transformed Good Friday (the most evil day in history) into Easter Sunday (the most beautiful day in history).

 

Many of us steer clear of Good Friday because it reminds us of death, of pain, and of our own personal mortality. Sometimes we may question: what on earth is Good about Good Friday? What’s so good about someone going through the worst suffering and most excruciating death ever imagined?  Good Friday seems too morbid, too deadly, too bloody.

Modern medical science is wonderful in the way that it can prolong life that would often otherwise be over.  But medicine can only postpone the inevitable facing all of us.  We are mortals here on earth.  In my mid-teen period, I lost sight of the power of Easter, and concluded that there was no life after death. Death was final, and that was the end of it.  Nothing was waiting for me but the grave.  What was it all about, I wondered?  Was life really worth the effort? I began to fear the power of death and the meaninglessness and emptiness of life. I even secretly wondered if life itself was worth living.

 

In the midst of my teenage self-doubt,  I still loved Easter, but I didn’t get it.  The flowers, the food, the fun and even Easter worship were enjoyable, but somehow I missed the message.  It is funny how you can celebrate something that you grow up with, and yet the real meaning can be missed.  When the penny finally dropped, when the light came on, it was like waking up from the dead.  I finally understood that Jesus solved the unsolvable death problem, and that by faith in him, the future is bright and unstoppable.

 

My prayer for those of you who love the Easter season is that you may realize that at the end of the day, love is stronger than death, and love has the final word.

 

Rev. Ed Hird, Rector

St Simon’s North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)

http://stsimonschurch.ca

-an article for the April 2012 Deep Cove Crier

-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com

p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD.  This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mailed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.

-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide :  Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada

You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

WordPress now tells me which countries my visitors are coming from…

2012-02-09 to Today (350,744 visitors so far)

Country	Views
United States	3,774
Canada	1,551
United Kingdom	1,253
Australia	246
Philippines	225
India	174
Brazil	147
Mexico	115
Turkey	108
Netherlands	106
Germany	104
Poland	97
France	91
Italy	90
Malaysia	70
Sweden	60
Indonesia	60
South Africa	57
Ireland	57
New Zealand	55
Portugal	55
Singapore	51
Spain	51
Czech Republic	49
Norway	48
Switzerland	44
Denmark	44
United Arab Emirates	41
Croatia	41
Hungary	40
Hong Kong	39
Thailand	35
Romania	34
Russian Federation	33
Austria	31
Pakistan	29
Greece	29
Belgium	28
Slovakia	26
Jamaica	23
Peru	23
Republic of Korea	23
Japan	22
Viet Nam	20
Cyprus	20
Israel	18
Sri Lanka	18
Bulgaria	17
Finland	16
Jordan	15
Guatemala	15
Dominican Republic	15
Chile	14
Saudi Arabia	14
Slovenia	14
Ukraine	14
Venezuela	13
Georgia	13
Egypt	13
Lebanon	12
Serbia	11
Colombia	11
Taiwan	11
Iceland	11
Macedonia	10
Malta	10
Puerto Rico	10
Rwanda	10
Lithuania	10
Bosnia and Herzegovina	10
Honduras	9
Nepal	8
Qatar	8
Kenya	7
Maldova	7
Trinidad and Tobago	6
Ghana	6
Nigeria	6
Argentina	6
Panama	6
Bahrain	6
Costa Rica	5
Cambodia	5
Bangladesh	5
Bahamas	4
Estonia	4
Latvia	4
El Salvador	4
Montenegro	4
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	4
Bhutan	4
Guyana	3
Belarus	3
Armenia	3
Iraq	3
Namibia	3
Nicaragua	2
Luxembourg	2
Côte d’Ivoire	2
China	2
Bolivia	2
Benin	2
Ethiopia	2
Barbados	2
Myanmar	2
Aruba	2
Ecuador	2
Djibouti	2
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	2
Belize	2
Mongolia	2
Mauritius	1
Grenada	1
Algeria	1
Paraguay	1
Saint Kitts and Nevis	1
American Samoa	1
Albania	1
Guam	1
Yemen	1
Botswana	1
Jersey	1
Maldives	1
Macao	1
Morocco	1
Cayman Islands	1
Zambia