One of my favorite movies is "Groundhog Day," with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It's a movie about a weatherman from a Pittsburgh TV station, who is sent to Puxatawny to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. He hates his job, he hates his life, and he especially hates having to cover something so inane. But he has to go - he covers the event, but is forced to remain there overnight because of an impending blizzard.

That night, he goes to bed, disgusted and out of sorts, and awakens the next morning to find - surprise! - it's Groundhog Day, all over again! And as he goes through the day, all the same people are doing all the same things they did the day before, saying exactly the same things - everything is exactly like the day before. That night, he goes to bed, thinking he's cracking up, only to awaken the next morning to - yes - Groundhog Day! He's caught in some kind of time warp. Every day is the same. Every day is Groundhog Day in Puxatawny, PA.

After he gets over the shock, he decides to take advantage of what is happening - he uses the information he gleans from reliving the day over and over to bed down a pretty girl, and to rob an armored truck. It doesn't matter, after all - every day, he wakes up and it's the beginning of Groundhog Day anyway. He hasn't gained or lost by it.

After a while, he begins to despair. He decides to kill himself - and does so - over and over again. But each morning, he awakens, and it's Groundhog Day again.

Then, for some reason, he turns his attention to one of the bit players in this drama - an old derelict that approaches him for money. He decides to help the old guy out, and to see what happens to him. What happens, is that the old man dies - it is the last day of his life. That so shakes the weatherman, that he determines to save him - day, after day, after day - but it's no use. The old man will die that day.

With this new revelation, people suddenly become more important to him. He starts making his way around town, noting everything that happens, and placing himself strategically. He walks briskly down the street, stops under a tree, looks at his watch and reaches out just in time to catch a boy falling from the tree. As the boy races off, he calls after him, "You never thank me! Never!" A car of older women pulls over to the curb with a flat tire. One of them exclaims, "Now what do we do?" Just them the back of the car begins to rise - the weatherman, with a tire and jack in hand, is changing their tire. He walks into a restaurant, crosses to the back, arriving just as a man is starting to choke. He does the Heimlich maneuver, waves and leaves. And he begins to take piano lessons.

He finds himself in love - both with his female producer, and with life. Finally, he realizes what a wonderful gift a day can be and what joy can come from losing oneself in helping others. At last he falls asleep, exclaiming to the woman he has fallen in love with, "This is the greatest day of may life!" And he awakes in the morning to find - that it is, indeed, a new morning! It is a brand new day!

For a film called, "Groundhog Day," there is a lot of Easter there. One of the most telling moments in the story is when the weatherman is sharing a few beers with some friends he's made, and they're all three sheets to the wind. He asks them, "What would you do, if every day you woke up. and it was exactly the same - same people, saying the same things, same everything, as the day before. Nothing changes, and you can't get away from it - you're stuck there, day after day. Nothing you can do." And one guy looks at the other, then laughs, "That's my life!"

Oftentimes that does seem to be our life. We think that, by changing time or location, our life will change, but it doesn't. Every day is pretty much the same as another. You wake up in the morning, and it's another morning on the anthill. That fact makes some people either desperate, or cynical, or callous - or it can drive us to despair. Life can shatter us, until we realize what a precious commodity it is that we've been given. Until Easter arrives, and the possibilities given to us in life begin to unfold, and we begin to see each day in a new way.

Easter doesn't simply mean we've got a lot more days to fill - this time, in eternity. That could be a good definition of hell - endless days with nothing to do. Easter is a declaration that life is greater than death; that every day is in fact a brand new day, a day we can start with the slate wiped clean. Every day is a cause for celebration, because God is giving us new life. It doesn't matter whether we are one or one hundred, whether we've completely fouled our life up, or lived the straight and narrow. Every day offers the possibility of reinvesting ourselves in life, in the things that truly matter.

Tonly Campolo tells a story about when he went to Hawaii for a convention, and had trouble sleeping one night. So about 2:00 in the morning, he found himself in a White Castle, sipping coffee with some drunks and hookers. He noticed one prostitute that was a bit older than the others, that was giving advice to a younger one that seemed to be having some difficulties, and that interested him. So he asked the man behind the grill about her. "Oh," he said, "that's Margie. She's like a mother to the girls that walk the streets around here." Then he added, as an afterthought, "Her birthday is tomorrow."

Compolo thought about that for a little while, then he said. "Then I think we should throw a birthday party for her!" The guy looked up at him, incredulously, and said, "Are you serious? You don't even know her! Why would you give her a birthday party?" "Because I'm a Christian," Campolo came back. "I'm from a church that likes to give birthday parties for prostitutes." And the guy behind the grill said, "Now, that's a church I'd like to join!"

Shocking? Offensive? Sure! But that's also the Gospel. Do you know who the most honored person in the New Testament is? Who would you think? Peter? Paul? Mary, Jesus' mother? Who was it that God honored by being the first to experience the resurrected Christ? Who was the first Apostle - the first disciple to see the risen Lord, and to be commissioned by him? Who did God give that honor to? Mary of Magdela, the woman from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons; the woman who, according to Christian tradition, was a prostitute. God threw her the biggest birthday party of all time. She was the first to receive new life in Jesus, the first to be "born again," as she received his resurrected presence. Shocking? Offensive? Who cares?! God loves to throw birthday parties for prostitutes, and for a lot of other people with whom we would never want to be seen.

The end of the story is this: Dr. Campolo bought the decorations, the guy behind the grill bought a cake, and the other prostitutes got word around about the party, and bought some presents. And when Margie walked in, they sang "Happy Birthday," and she was stunned, and overcome, and broke down in tears. She cried, "No one has ever given me a birthday party before. Never!"

Can you imagine that?

We have been given the most precious of gifts - the gift of new life in Christ. Easter is the declaration of God's power to save us, even amid the shattering experiences of life. Easter declares the overcoming of death with life - it is the doorway to a life of celebration. Easter is God's birthday party for us - a party to which all are invited. It is the power of God's life in us, giving life to the world he loves. Outside the days may all look the same, but each one carries within it innumerable possibilities. Each day carries potential for hope, for service, for love, for losing ourselves for the sake of others, for dying to death and rising to new life. Each day offers us the possibility of celebration, the possibility of stepping outside of ourselves, risking ourselves for the sake of others, of doing something crazy, and wonderful, and glorious for Him.

The disciples came to that cave on Easter morning, shattered and disillusioned. The world had done what it does best - they were beaten down, confused, frightened, fearful. But then God revealed to them an empty tomb, and an open door. Easter did not simply call Jesus forth out of the tomb - it called the disciples out of the tomb, and calls us as well. It called them to boldness of life, to witness, to give themselves sacrificially and joyously. It called them to walk again with their risen and living Savior. Jesus was alive! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!