When Easter Sunday falls on April Fools' Day
A good joke can reveal the distance between what is and what should be.
Preachers, as you might know, often begin their sermons with a joke. These jokes are ornaments, brightening up a somber sermon. They don’t generally serve a deeper purpose.
What will preachers do this Easter—April 1, 2018? Will they make a joke in passing, before digging into the serious stuff? Or will they embrace the opportunity to do something more?
It’s a rare opportunity. The last time Easter fell on April Fools’ Day was in 1956. Due to the quirks involved in dating Easter against the Gregorian calendar, the two coincide only intermittently. After 2018, the next one is 2029, and then again in 2040—but after that, not again in this century. April Fools’ Day is not significant in Christianity, but it is the perfect excuse to talk about jokes in the Bible.
