For God So Loved the Cosmos

Jesus tells Nicodemus, “For God so loved the cosmos that he gave his only begotten son…” (John 3:16). Cosmos is a Greek word that can have as many as eight different meanings or applications. Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, and the Jews thought that they alone were God’s beloved. Jesus ushers in a new day, one in which God’s love and the gospel are opened to all groups of people and all of creation.

Holy week and Easter remind us of the dimensions and stories of this love. This year we celebrate Easter on the earliest day possible. Among the Roman Catholic church and Protestant denominations, Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 20th, the nominal date of the Spring Equinox. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from March 22 to April 25th.

Christianity and other religions associate three themes with the spring equinox: conception and pregnancy; victory of a god of light (or life, rebirth, resurrection) over the powers of darkness (death); and the descent of god into the underworld for a period of three days.

Our Apostles’ Creed contains two of these themes. Jesus Christ was: "... crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead;"

Easter is linked also to the Jewish Passover in both symbolism and its position in the calendar, as well as the ancient sun and moon worship celebrations. Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the ancient Mediterranean region had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at, or following, the spring equinox.

During spring, the sun, radiant and healing, revitalizes the dark and dormant, as days and nights are again of equal length on the day of equinox. The rays strike our planet more directly, and the earth responds with newness and freshness. May the eternal experience of spring prepare each of us for a personal rebirth and resurrection. May it be a sign to us that life rises out of death; that through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection God so loved the cosmos.

Grace and peace,
Joyce

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March 2008