No Post-Easter Letdown

Charles Schultz, in one of his inimitable "Peanuts" comic strips, coined the expression "Post-Christmas Letdown." Schultz may have been the one to name it, but we've all felt it: that feeling of disappointment that comes when all the services are over, all the presents have been opened and the wrappings discarded, and we are back at work with nothing to look forward to but three months of Winter. The tree may still be up, but it's looking a little droopy, even if it's artificial. Nobody really likes those few days after Christmas.

But yesterday I realized that there's no corresponding Post-Easter Letdown. That may be because we don't overload Easter with unrealistic expectations the way we do Christmas, but I think it's something more. Easter points us forward in a way that Christmas, as we usually celebrate it, doesn't. The eschatological emphasis of the Advent texts tries to drag us into the future, but old habits are hard to break and we often find ourselves longing for Christmases past--or at least I do.

Easter, to be sure, has a strong historical component. We wouldn't celebrate it if Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead at a particular time in a particular place. Easter both completes the story begun at Christmas and opens a new chapter. Because Jesus is alive, the past is prologue and the future is open. Jesus said it this way: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you...Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. On to Pentecost!