Take One Egg
At the start of the service I mentioned that we’re having a congregational bring and share lunch after today’s service to which you are all invited. Don’t worry if you didn’t know and haven’t brought food – there’s always enough to go round. Cooking is not my number one pastime so I won’t demonstrate the particular culinary skill from which my title comes – I saw it first on television a long time ago – show of hands – how many people remember Fanny Craddock? She was a lot of fun – a larger than life character – one of the first personality chefs that we British seem to adore.
And she made a big impression on me when she would deftly break an egg on the side of a bowl with one hand and utter those immortal words ‘take one egg’.
Do you find that – that certain images stay with you, though you may not always be sure why? Words and sayings are like that too – an old friend would often say when life got tough – “you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs” and I can almost hear her saying it now. It tells us in a graphic way that life is hard at times, pain is inevitable, the very act of living in this world has consequences that are generally unavoidable. Things get broken, people are wounded, life hurts. My friend was delighted one year on a holiday in France to hear a French cook make the same comment – “on ne fait pas d’omelette sans casser des œufs”. It clearly is a universal message, a universal theme.
It’s one of the key themes of the Easter narrative that we’re exploring today – that life is tough, we humans suffer, yet out of suffering and despair new life can emerge. And what a rich collection of themes there are to explore in the Gospel accounts – all speaking of the human condition. Here are just a few for us to consider – do they speak to you and your experiences I wonder?
What about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem a week before his death – how many of us have experienced success in some way only for it to turn to failure, how often do we think all is going well only to realise subsequently that we missed warning signs that a situation was about to turn against us?
Or what about the role of Judas? Caught up in a drama where he was given the role of baddie – essential to the plot but destined to be cursed for all time as the one who betrayed his master and his friend? Not many people get to play that part but in a smaller way haven’t most of us experienced times when we cannot seem to do right, or when life is pushing us into a unpleasant task that cannot be avoided?
Which of us can say that we have never felt despair in our life? Jesus’ lonely moments in the dark, in the garden of Gethsemane, when his friends cannot stay awake and he weeps alone for what he knows is to come – this despair is part of life – it tells us perhaps that in our darkest moments when we truly are alone – we are experiencing an emotion felt by others. Sometimes that simple sense of being on a path that others have walked upon may help ease our pain.
What is your reaction to Pontius Pilate and the cleft stick that he finds himself in? Charged with keeping the peace in a lonely outpost of the Roman empire – allegedly in charge of the whole show yet forced by the crowd and the canny religious leaders to take an action he would rather not take – ordering that Jesus be crucified and the criminal freed. Haven’t many of us at times been forced by circumstances to do something that we think is wrong, unable to find the courage to speak against the beliefs of the majority? And that symbolic action of washing his hands – could he have had any understanding that the events of that Passover festival would resound through the centuries – that he could never escape responsibility for what was to come.
The Easter narrative speaks much of human hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses. Do you remember Jesus’ prediction that before the cock crowed twice he would be betrayed not once, not twice but three times by his closest follower Peter? Peter exclaims that such a thing could never be and yet in the fear of the moment he does just that – denies that he is a friend of Jesus and slinks away from the court yard. It’s a rare person that has not let a friend down at times, a rare person who has always managed to stand up for what they know to be right – whatever the likely consequences. We’re fortunate if we live lives where our loyalty is not tested unto death in this way.
And Jesus the man, wearing his crown of thorns, not wanting to die, feeling forsaken on the cross, wounded and in great pain, mocked and spat upon, –uttering those words – “my lord why hast thou forsaken me?” There are times for many of us in life where its utter bleakness has to be faced.
As Jesus died on the cross it seems that the only followers who stayed near were women – his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. They were powerless to save him, yet they stood and bore witness to his death. Later they were to report his disappearance from the tomb. Are there times in your life where you have been left powerless to do anything other than bear witness to the suffering of another? Such a painful role, yet such an honourable thing to do for another – to be there, simply there.
These are just a few of the great themes that Easter brings to our world – themes expressed in art and literature and music, some of the foundation stones of our culture, from the most important festival of the Christian year. We won’t be able to shop in large supermarkets this afternoon because most of them will be shut in recognition of Easter’s importance. I know this because I was in Marks and Spencer’s recently when a shop assistant was asked why they would be shut by a bemused shopper. The assistant gave a brief explanation of Britain’s complex laws on shop opening and the shopper replied that it was a bit weird and that she didn’t think they’d shut last year. But they were shut last year and in many European countries that are just as secular as ours, all retail opportunities are removed, all shops are firmly shut.
I hope that our culture does not lose its religious foundation stones because whatever our religious and spiritual beliefs I think we need narratives that connect us to one another and to those themes of pain and despair, cruelty and betrayal, sacrifice and submission, love and re-birth. We cannot know what happened thousands of years ago in a dusty and turbulent outpost of the Roman Empire, but we can look at the history of the last two thousand years and wonder at the powerful influence this event has had on us and on the history of our world.
As Unitarians we are free to create Easter’s meaning and significance for ourselves. Many of us find strength in more earth centred explorations of its message of death and re-birth; we find comfort perhaps in understanding that the early Christian church incorporated earlier pagan practices into its own celebrations – not least of which are the eggs we have here on the table, that remind us of life’s infinite potential, of the life force that cannot be kept down. Take one egg and you have all the potential of creativity and growth and new life. Take one egg and you know just how fragile and precious life is. That is both our gift and our responsibility.
When we hear bird song all around us, when we see leaves appearing on the trees and flowers blooming in gardens, when we feel the increasing strength of the sun and notice the longer days, there is something universal in that word of praise – alleluia – thank goodness, thank god, thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope that in the midst of life’s demands I remember how good it is to give thanks – even if it is just because you have managed at long last to crack an egg with one hand or managed to cook an omelette.
Happy Easter. Amen.
Rev. Sarah Tinker
Sermon – Easter 2012