Across the Pastor’s Desk by Todd Walsh

It’s the Friday after Easter and I would imagine that some of you have, in the last week, had a particular conversation.

How do you figure the date of Easter?

Well, Easter is the Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox (the beginning of spring). Easter can be as early as March 22 and as late as April 25. The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD set the formula so that Easter would fall on a date patterned after the Jewish Passover, which is also based on the vernal equinox and the full moon.

This sounds mighty complicated to me, and the actual formula is worse!

At the heart of the complicated formula to set the date of Easter is the desire to connect. The formula brings us closer to the actual day. It can remind us that this really happened and the story that Jesus rose from the dead is true.

A few weeks ago I went looking for another truth. It was the first day of spring. I wanted to see for myself if the sun set due west on the first day of spring. It was chilly. It was a little cloudy. I stood at the end of my deck railing, using it as a straight edge pointing due west. The sun did indeed settle on the horizon at due west.

It was amazing to see such a simple sight that is really nothing more than geometry. The direct rays of the sun are at the equator at the vernal equinox — the first day of spring. Earth is balanced on its axis at that moment. Of course, the sun will set at due west. You can’t change the math, but you can enjoy the view.

Allow me to share with you one more bit of astronomy trivia, this one with what I would call spiritual implications. This one is also harder to spot than a sunset. Brace yourself for a pretty technical term. The angular diameter of the sun and the moon are virtually the same. What does that mean? It means that the moon is just the right distance from Earth so that if the moon passed in front of the sun, the sun would be perfectly blocked out.

We can see this when we enjoy the rare event of a total solar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is a little different, but similar math is in play.

Now a question to take us into the spiritual. What are the chances that the moon would be just far enough away from the earth for the angular diameter of the moon and the sun to be the same? My answer: zilch. Zero. Not a chance.

I think we have been given a message in the sky from the one who made this remarkable thing we call creation. And the message is very simple: “I’m here. I’m real.”

Let me change direction only slightly and point you to another horizon with a Bible passage.

This passage points us not to a wonder in the sky but a wonder found in a person.

John 20.30-31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Those two verses are remarkable because they point us to the wonder of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The verses are also remarkable because they are one of the few places in the Bible where you and I are directly and intentionally addressed by the author of this gospel. This evangelist we know of as John is speaking to us over two thousand years. We are being directly addressed. He is inviting us to stop and look at what Jesus did long ago, and he is making it clear that this Jesus is still among us and still showing us the wonder of “life in his name.”

Let me finish with an invitation. There are many churches in this community where people gather to take up “life in his name.” Put yourself in a place where you can be part of what God is doing in this community and world.

The Rev. Todd Walsh is the chaplain at Thorne Crest Senior Living Community.