Easter Meanings

For those who are filled with religion, humour and understanding, or at least one of the three, I offer up this anecdote by Reverand Rachel Rosi at the First Parish of Bridgewater. Enjoy the tale, and Happy Vernal Celebration, whatever your preference may be.

The popular traditions that surround Easter – the eggs, the bunnies, the Easter Lilies, even the English name for the holiday: Easter are all European Pagan Traditions. Very little of the traditions we love have anything to do with the story of Jesus and his death and resurrection.

Today some of us will go home, perhaps to have a special dinner with our families, to eat eggs and chocolate bunnies, or hold an Easter egg hunt. Last Wednesday night began the week of Passover, when some of us also ate eggs as well matzah, and macaroons. And Tuesday is Earth Day when some of us may feel inclined to pick up litter, work in the garden, attend an environmental rally, or plant a tree.

How can these three holidays: Passover, Easter, and Earth Day, fit together in a way that gives respect to all of life and is honorable to the divine?

Well, last week I was on the phone with my sister Emma and she asked an important question about Easter, that perhaps might help us come to some clarity. As any good minister will do when we don't know the answer, I made up an answer for my sister. Eventually, I did some research on the question -- and called her back--but I actually liked my own answer better.

I'll let you decide which is fact and which is fantasy.

Emma's question was: Why do Christian's eat Ham on Easter? Is it intentionally Anti-Semitic?

It turns out that not all Christians eat Ham on Easter. The sacred food for Passover is lamb, the Pascal lamb, which was the required sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem.

Christians in the Middle East and the Mediterranean eat lamb for Easter perhaps because of the connection between Passover and Easter, or perhaps just because sheep are plentiful in that part of the world.

Incidentally, the word for Easter in Greek, Italian, Spanish, and other Mediterranean languages comes from the Hebrew word for Passover, Pesach. In Italy, they say “Buona Pasqua!” instead of Happy Easter.

Northern Europeans on the other hand traditionally ate pork and ham because pigs are plentiful in Northern Europe. Americans continued the tradition of eating pig over sheep, and ham became the traditional Easter food.

According to some Christian theologians, Jesus, as the Lamb of God, became the new sacrifice that replaced the Pascal lamb of the temple.

I think it's also significant that in English, the words “lamb” and “ham” rhyme. Instead of the Pascal lamb, Americans eat the Pascal ham.

Now all of these answers are all fine and good, but as a religious vegetarian, I oppose all human and animal sacrifices. In my mind, surely, God intended a more humane and fitting sacrifice than either the Pascal lamb or the Pascal ham. So I dug deep into my tombs of sacred texts to find out the true Easter/Passover/Earth Day ritual food.

If not the Lamb of God, nor the Ham of God then what?

In the Book of Exodus, God appears to Moses in a burning bush. Moses asks what God's name is. And God says, “My name is 'I Am’. Tell the people that 'I Am' sent you.”
Now, if Texas Gov. James Ferguson was right, when he said in 1917, "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for the schoolchildren of Texas” then English was the language of Jesus and therefore the language of God.

However, in the King James Bible, printed in England as the first official English-language bible, God speaks with a British Accent (As you may recall, we fought a war against the British in 1776 so that we wouldn't have to speak with a British accent).

So, surely, if Jesus and God speak English, then by golly, they speak American English. However, we do have many American accents too. Which accent is the accent of God?

Well, I'm proud to say, I found the answer in a 20th century prophetic text. This text, you may remember, appeared in daily newspapers and later on television. The prophet was a sailor, strong because of his love for spinach, and holy because of his love for that saintly woman Olive Oyl. Yes, Popeye was his name, and holy he was.

One of his famous sayings comes straight from the mouth of God. He says: “I yam what I yam, and that's all that I yam”

I yam what I yam.

Not “I ham what I ham,” not “I lamb what I lamb.” No! “Moses,” says God, “tell the people that I yam sent you.”

Yes, the lowly yam, also called sweet potatoes here in the U.S. – Such a fitting symbol for the power of God. A symbol of everlasting life: if you cut the yam into pieces and plant the pieces, then, like other creatures of the potato variety, you will have multiple yams: the yam never dies!

A symbol of beauty: it's shape, it's ruby color; a symbol of the earth: perfectly formed and pure. According to the US Dept of Agriculture, the Sweet Potato Yam is the number one most nutritious food for the variety and quantity of vitamins present in each tuber.

Yes, indeed, this is God's perfect food!

***

Interestingly, vegetarian Jews have already discovered the power of the yam, and have replaced the Pascal lamb with the Pascal yam on their Seder plates. Will Christians do the same? Will Christians replace the Pascal ham with the Pascal yam?

In my conversation with my sister, my brother-in-law Eric chimed in with that perennial question on this topic: Where does “Spam” fit in????

Well I'm here to tell you today that Span definitely does NOT fit in!! It is obviously a temptation of the Devil, placed on our grocery store shelves to fool us into thinking it is the chosen food for us to eat, but it is not!

Don't be fooled. Do not fall into temptation! Spam is not God's Sacred Food!

There is another 20th Century prophet that I've discovered in my research. And this prophet comes to us at a very early age with one question and a plate of food. When this prophet comes to you, I hope you will proudly say, as I will:

I will eat them in a box; I will eat them with a fox,
I will eat them in a boat; I will eat them with a goat,
I will eat them here or there, I will eat them anywhere.
I will eat them, Sam I am – I will eat Green Eggs and Yams!

As I said at the beginning of my talk, I let you decide for yourselves, what is fact and what is fantasy.

I offered a little humor and a little truth.

Let your holiday celebrations this week honor the earth. May we honor all creatures that share this planet with us: The pigs and the sheep and the bunnies, and the chickens and the cows. May we honor what we eat, and eat what is holy.

Buona Pasqua! Good Pesach! Happy Easter! And Happy Earth Day!

Long live the Yam of God!

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Ask questions of your traditions. Hold on to what is true. Find humor in what is difficult, and create new meaning whenever possible. Go in Peace.