Easter Parade

I love a parade.

Back on February 14^th & 15^th, I wrote about how in the Dark Ages, Ginny & I designed a few parade floats. Well, I haven’t constructed a parade float in 20 years but parades still fascinate me.

No, I’m too nervous, uncomfortable, and shy in crowds to want to actually go to one, but I watch them on tv and enjoy thinking about how I’d handle this or that challenge with a particular float.

Recently I came across a church newsletter in which the Rev. H. Marshall Lowell, rector of St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, Jacksonville, Florida, explains the fascinating origin of the Easter Parade.

Here’s a copy of his happy essay:

The first Sunday in April we will lose one hour’s sleep. Two Sunday’s later we will gain victory over death! Unfortunately, most people do not know that Easter gives us victory over death. To them, that hour’s sleep is more important than Easter. It is tragic and almost incomprehensible that after two thousand years, the Word is still not out there. It is still a dark and despairing world. The church (us!) has a lot of work to do.

Most people know about Easter eggs, Easter baskets, Easter bunnies and Easter bonnets. Many people have no grasp of why we are celebrating. The “Easter Parade” is not about showing off our new finery, not about ministry — which is what it started out as so long ago.

Well over a century ago, the parishioners of St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue in New York would bring flowers and small gifts in baskets to church on Easter Sunday. Following the glorious Eucharistic Celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, they would walk up Fifth Avenue to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital (thus the Easter Parade) where they would visit each patient and give them flowers and little gifts. They would also share with the patients the Saving Grace of our Lord Jesus and His Easter Victory over sin and death. Many lives were changed as a result.

One of the dictionary definitions of parade is “a pompous show”. The church today is very good as such things, especially on occasions such as Easter. But does the show lead us to ministry?

The word just ahead of parade in the dictionary is Paraclete — another name for the Holy Spirit. If we truly understand the Easter Event we so love to celebrate, then we will ask the Lord for the power of the Holy Spirit to move us into ministry. It is, after all, a Victory Parade. It is the Victory Parade for all time and eternity — and that is certainly more important than an hour’s sleep. May you feel the total power and joy of this Victory. Happy Easter! …

Blessings!

P.S.: It is a good thing that I have a 29-year-old desk dictionary in which Paraclete follows Parade. The dictionary in my new super deluxe computer does not recognize this pseudonym for the Holy Spirit. It wants to change the word to Parakeet. Perhaps this is appropriate. We have allowed our concept of the spiritual power of the Lord to “go to the birds”. It is time for us to reclaim this power and use it to His glory!