Symbols are shortcuts to large
amounts of material. Color often serves as a symbol. In
our culture, white is the color of purity, black is the
color of death, blue generally means soothing, red is
meant to excite, green suggests growth, and yellow hints
at the light of the sun.
I was thinking about this on
the day before Easter when I had the privilege of turning
the church from a place of mourning and sadness to a place
of hope and life. On Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter,
we ended the service by taking everything off the altar
except the cross. Then we draped everything with black.
A number of people came each night to Holy Week services
and found the church drab and dreary, no color except
the black. With that black, we embraced our mourning as
we increased our awareness that we too, would have called
out, Crucify Him! had we been in Pilate’s courtyard.
We, too, have betrayed. On Good Friday, we experienced
this most fully with an almost fully darkened sanctuary.
But on Easter morning, all
that black was gone. The altar was draped with bright
gold and shining white. The glory of newly opened Easter
Lilies filled the sanctuary. It was possible to feel the
lightness in the space. The change of colors symbolized
the return of hope by the power of the Resurrection.
I’m not sure how the
church came to use color to help people recognize various
church seasons, but I presume it came as a way to help
non-literate people understand the movement of the year.
Certainly, that was the purpose of beautiful stained glass
windows that graced many cathedrals and also the beautiful
iconography of the Orthodox Church. Much of the Bible
can be read in some churches simply by knowing the stories
behind each window.
But most of us are fairly ignorant
of these things now. I personally didn’t come to
understand the power of color to tell the story of the
church until recently. But now that I know it, I’m
so appreciative of it. It gives me a simple way to mark
the year, to help me discipline my own spiritual life.
The colors tell me things. Now, with the white and gold,
I know it is time to pay special attention to the new
life in Christ. Old things have passed away, and all has
become new.
It’s not always easy
to live from this understanding. It demands that we learn
to obey God first—that the essence of the new life.
And often those around us don’t understand us when
we make a decision to obey God first. We seem strange,
out of step with those around us. We give instead of take,
turn the other cheek instead of hitting back, live with
integrity, rather than destructive compromise. It’s
different, and it is also fun. This type of living provides
delightful freedom and lightheartedness. These words of
life and light are the calling of anyone who wants to
see what it is like for all things to become new. We’ll
learn more on Sunday.
