Sermon Tone Analysis
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INTRODUCTION
Today is April Fools' Day.
It is also Easter Sunday.
This unusual conjunction of dates cannot go without comment.
It is unusual.
Since 1700, 318 years ago, Easter has fallen on April 1 only 11 times!
The last time Christians celebrated Easter April 1 was in 1956 -- more than 60 years ago when the world was so unlike the world and culture we inhabit today.
It is unusual.
Although Easter falls on April Fools' Day again in 2029 and 2040, it will then not be observed April 1 for another 68 years -- 2108.
And then another wait of 62 years ... 2170.
Therefore, since Easter falls on April Fools' Day this year -- today -- and since it has been 62 years since the last conjunction of April Fools' Day and Easter, this fascinating coincidence begs to be noticed and mentioned.
We begin this discussion with a brief reference to this weird little holiday, a festive day generated perhaps by the joy of finally shedding the doldrums and darkness of winter.
It's as though on April Fools' Day, everyone gets out of their houses for the first time, like mole-people leaving their subterranean burrows to frolic in the sunshine for a while.
We call it a holiday, although there is nowhere in the world the day is observed officially.
You don't get to stay home and hide in the basement for a day, or take a picnic in the park.
But in the western world, some version of April Fools' Day exists and merriment ensues.
Typically, a prank is played on a hapless soul who's forgotten about the perils of April 1.
When the prank is completed and the fool humiliated, the perpetrator then yells "April fool!" There's the caramelized onion prank.
Dip apple-sized onions in caramel, poke a stick in them, and serve them to office workers who think they're biting into an apple.
Or, cut an outline of a large bug, something that's perhaps an inch or two long, and affix it to the inside of your spouse's lampshade.
When the lamp is turned on, the silhouette of the bug appears suddenly, freaking out your victim.
The BBC once broadcast a short documentary in a current affairs series purporting to show Swiss farmers picking freshly grown spaghetti in what they called the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest.
The BBC was later flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant, forcing them to declare the film a hoax on the news the next day.
April fools!
MOVE 2
Today is Easter.
This is unarguably the highest and most holy day of the Christian calendar.
As holy days go, it doesn't get holier than this.
And since it is April 1, we have to ask: "Who, after all, is the April fool?"
A whole slew of candidates come to mind.
Is the April fool Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator?
He was the one who cowered in the face of certain religious potentates who said that failing to deal harshly with a treasonous villain like Jesus would not be viewed favorably by Rome.
He is the one who washed his hands of the whole affair.
He permitted the execution, and not only permitted it, but allowed it to happen in the name of the emperor.
Then, it's Easter and Jesus is risen!
Sorry, Pilate!
April fools!
Perhaps the disciples are the April fools.
Let's be clear: There's no doubt that many of the disciples felt foolish as the crucifixion approached.
They had given up their jobs for this Jesus.
They had left their homes and families to follow this man on his peripatetic journeys up and down Palestine.
Yes, they had been witness to some phenomenal events, stuff they could not then, and could not now explain.
They had pinned their hopes and their futures to a man they believed would liberate them.
And now he was being led away as a lamb to the slaughter.
So the disciples went home.
They abandoned him, betrayed him and wanted to forget him.
And now it's Easter morning and Jesus is risen!
April fools!
Perhaps the April fool is Annas, the high priest, and his toady son-in-law, Caiaphas.
Annas is a dark, malevolent figure in this Holy Week drama, something akin to Grand Moff Tarkin or Emperor Palpatine of Star Wars.
He has had enough.
He has corrupted witnesses, falsified evidence, placed a mole inside of Jesus' inner circle, tracked the movements of this radical insurgent and bided his time.
But now, with Passover approaching, he must make sure Jesus is dead and buried and quickly!
He pulls the strings.
He plays Pontius Pilate like a West Virginia fiddler.
He gets what he wants.
But now, Annas, it's Easter morning and Jesus is risen!
April fools!
Perhaps the April fools are the soldiers guarding the tomb.
You have to feel for these fellows.
They're simply cogs in the Roman industrial military complex.
They've got guard duty in a cemetery.
They must've been caught drinking grog and playing dice, or perhaps they inadvertently allowed a prisoner to escape their custody.
So now, as humiliating punishment, they've been sent to the tombs to guard dead people!
Haha!
They are good, decent chaps.
Ordinary, common, following orders.
Guarding a dead person.
Bet the teasing was brutal in the pub last night!
And now, it's Easter morning and Jesus is risen!
April fools!
Perhaps the April fool is Peter, the commercial fisherman.
Oh, Peter started out enthusiastically, no doubt.
He defended his rabbi right and left.
He was the one who identified Jesus as the "Christ, the Son of the living God."
He swore never to abandon his Lord.
He even drew a sword against a cohort of Roman security forces, and nearly decapitated one of them, but his swing was errant and deprived the solider of only his ear, not his head.
But then, Peter loses faith faster than a rock sinks in water.
When Jesus at last is captured and led away, he denies he ever knew the man.
And the person who said he would never leave Jesus, leaves.
What a fool!
And now, Peter, it's Easter morning and Jesus is risen!
April fools!
Perhaps the April fool is Thomas, the one with a Ph.D. from Jerusalem Institute of Technology.
Oh, Thomas thought he was so smart.
He prided himself on his knowledge of the visible world.
He delighted in understanding how things worked.
He was a curious fellow, believing there's a natural explanation for everything.
When Jesus talked about going "to prepare a place" for them, it was this scholarly fellow Thomas who asked, "We do not know where you are going.
How can we know the way?" ().
When his colleagues asserted that Jesus was alive, it was Thomas, ever the academic and scientist, who demanded to see the evidence.
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe" ().
And now, Thomas, it's Easter morning and Jesus is risen!
April fools!
MOVE 3
Perhaps the greatest fools are all of us.
Certainly, much of the world believes we're crackers, completely foolish souls who need Jesus and religion as some sort of emotional crutch.
It's likely that a fair percentage of the general population, who -- although identifying themselves as religious -- think that we committed followers of Jesus take things too seriously.
We who love Jesus, who follow his teachings, who obey his word, are regarded by many as the fools.
The April fools.
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