Theologian's Almanac for Week of April 17, 2022
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, April 17:
April 17 is Easter Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It’s one of the few “moveable feasts” in the Christian calendar, floating to a different Sunday each year. Why? Jesus was said to have risen on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring — for Christians, a sign that the event’s significance is cosmic in scope, its anniversary depending more on the season and the moon than the numerical date on the calendar.
What’s the meaning of Easter today? For those who despair that death-dealing powers have the upper hand — fear not. Easter means God ultimately is and will be victorious over the powers of death. For those who feel isolated and lonely — fear not. Easter means we are all together in the risen Body of Christ, even if we’re physically unable to gather. For those who despair that our guilt is too great for God to forgive — fear not. Easter means God has cleared all accounts, liberating humanity from shame, reconciling us to God and each other as God’s children. For those who despair in the midst of pain and anguish — take heart. You are not alone: Jesus suffers with you in solidarity and companionship, and Easter means you will rise with him. For those who despair over a world filled with hate, violence, and scapegoating — be encouraged. In Christ’s passion, God has taken the place of the scapegoat in order to expose humanity’s violent ways — and Easter means God one day will overcome violence. Indeed, Easter means that God has taken one of the worst things in the world (the Roman cross) and remade it into one of the best (the Tree of Life), a sword into a ploughshare — and if the worst, then also the whole creation in the end! Like the cross, the empty tomb is a great divine mystery, a rising sun dispelling shadows in multiple directions. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
For more on Easter this year, check out SALT’s commentary here.
April 17 is also the birthday of Isak Dinesen, born Karen Dinesen near Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1885. Growing up, she loved listening to stories from Danish mythology, and became a writer at an early age. After a failed effort at running a coffee plantation in Kenya, she returned to writing — choosing “Isak” as a pen name, the Danish version of “Isaac” from the Bible, which means, “laughter.” Her breakthrough book was Seven Gothic Tales, full of magical realism and wild adventures, and she went on to one of the most celebrated literary careers of the twentieth century, including her short story, “Babette’s Feast,” and her classic memoir, Out of Africa.
Like her life and writing, her theology is shot through with adventurous wit. “Truth is for tailors and shoemakers,” she wrote. “I, on the contrary, have always held that the Lord has a penchant for masquerades.” And again: “God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.”
April 17 is also the birthday of the American novelist and playwright, Thornton Wilder. Wilder won Pulitzer prizes both for his novel, “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” and his beloved play, “Our Town,” one of the most-produced plays in American history. Each work shimmers with theological themes. The novel is the story of a bridge that collapses in 18th-century Lima, Peru, killing the five people crossing it — and a Franciscan friar who, after witnessing the tragedy, tries to figure out why those five people had to die. And “Our Town” is what Wilder called “a little play with all the big subjects in it; and it’s a big play with all the little things of life lovingly impressed into it... an immersion into a New Hampshire town.” One of its principal characters, Emily, famously says, “O Earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?”
April 19 is the anniversary of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history. What was Timothy McVeigh’s motive? He sought revenge against the government for the raid — exactly two years earlier, on April 19, 1993 — of the compound near Waco, Texas, occupied by the armed, extremist Christian sect led by David Koresh. The connection between these two events, and their origin in a distorted, abusive, violent form of Christianity, is worth remembering today, especially in light of the recent surge in hate groups and domestic terrorism in the United States.
April 21 is the birthday of naturalist John Muir, born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838 — though he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. By age 11, he could recite nearly all of the Bible by heart, and his writings later in life are shot through with theological ideas. An avid inventor and fascinated with God’s creation, he was nearly struck blind by a sawmill accident, and realized how important the beautiful world was to him: “I bade adieu to all my mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.” He embarked on a 1,000-mile walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, and then another from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. He eventually helped found the Sierra Club and tirelessly fought to protect wilderness areas, especially around the Yosemite Valley — and his fateful camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt resulted in the establishment of the U.S. National Parks. While his early journal writings include evidence of racial prejudice against both African Americans and Native Americans, over the course of his life he gained maturity and sensitivity; as an older man, for example, he wrote with passion about how much may be learned from Native American people and ways of life. For a collection of his spiritual writings, check out this anthology.
April 22 is Earth Day, first observed in 1970 — which makes this year the 52nd anniversary. Largely inspired by Rachel Carson’s work, among others, the original Earth Day was a widespread, bipartisan response to the negative impacts of industrial development — and President Nixon, along with Congress, responded quickly to the popular pressure, establishing the Environmental Protection Agency that same year, and landmark environmental legislation followed close behind. With something like one billion people now participating annually, Earth Day is considered the largest civic-focused day of action in the world. Jews and Christians, among other religious people, have been involved all the way along in Earth Day’s history — and no wonder, since Genesis so vividly casts humanity as creation’s steward in the first creation story; as Eden’s gardener in the second creation story; and as custodian of creation’s biodiversity in the Noah story. And this year’s Earth Day theme — “Invest in Our Planet” — is both timely and pressing. If the original Earth Day spurred unprecedented environmental action and coordination, the 52nd must do the same!
Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on “The Bible and Climate Change - Part One.”
April 23 is the (observed) birthday of William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1564. It’s also his death day, in 1616, at the age of 52. Theology is woven through his many works, including these gems worth remembering:
“God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet” (Henry V).
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose” (The Merchant of Venice).
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Hamlet).
“The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice” (The Merchant of Venice).