Theologian's Almanac for Week of April 20, 2025

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 20:

April 20 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 despair with feelings of isolation and loneliness: fear not. Easter means we are all together in the risen Body of Christ, even if we’re separated in time or space. 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 highlight and transform 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.

And for an Easter feast of Easter poems, check out SALT’s selection here.

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 United States National Parks.

While his early journal writings include evidence of racial bigotry 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 55th anniversary. Inspired in part by Rachel Carson’s work, among many 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 — “Our Power, Our Planet” — is both timely and pressing. If the original Earth Day spurred unprecedented environmental action and coordination, the 55th must do the same!

Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on “The Bible and Climate Change - Part One.”

And here’s SALT’s brief essay, “Earth Day, Climate Action, and the Bible.”

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).

April 25 is the birthday of Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Jazz, who once said, “It’s not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I’ve got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing!” Here she is, um, just standing there and singing :)

April 26 is the birthday of French-American ornithologist and painter John James Audubon, born in Haiti in 1785. His classic book of ornithological paintings, Birds of America, is still regarded as one of the finest, most ambitious picture books ever made. In response to a critic who “expressed some doubts as to my views respecting the affection and love of pigeons, as if I made it human, and raised the possessors quite above the brutes,” Audubon wrote: “I presume the love of the mothers for their young is much the same as the love of woman for her offspring. There is but one kind of love; God is love, and all his creatures derive theirs from his; only it is modified by the different degrees of intelligence in different beings and creatures.”

At the same time, as celebrated as Audubon is for his contributions to ornithology and environmental protection, he also enslaved African Americans and held white supremacist views. Some have tried to diminish these aspects of his legacy as products “of his time,” but of course some of Audubon’s contemporaries were staunch, vocal abolitionists. To their credit, the National Audubon Society has opted in recent years to highlight and grapple with this dimension of their namesake’s life and work, and use it as part of the organization’s efforts to help build a world of racial equity.