Easter and Ostara
An Inclusive Full Worship Story for Families
For Two or More Storytellers
We recommend you begin the service with your congregation’s usual practice, and begin the story after a family-inclusive chalice lighting.
Story Beginnings
The story of Easter begins with a baby born over two thousand years ago, to a Jewish mother in a part of western Asia that today we call the Middle East. Does anyone know what this baby’s name was?
That’s right, this is a story about Jesus. In his time, the name “Jesus” was like the name “Joshua” today. You might remember stories about the special day he was born that we tell on Christmas. Rumors about how special Jesus was started even before he was born. Some people believed he came to fulfill some special prophecies from scripture. Some people even believed he was the son of God, and that God had caused Mary to become pregnant with Jesus by a miracle. These beliefs about Jesus are the reason for his other name, Christ. Christ means “anointed one,” somebody who has been specially blessed.
The story of Easter, or AE-ah-stra also begins with a sunrise - a sunrise made so beautiful by the coming of spring that she became a goddess. The people who first loved this goddess were living in a place that we now call Germany, but they lived there almost two thousand years ago. She has been called by many similar-sounding names. Today, we will call her Ostara, which means “shining dawn.”
The spring sunrise goddess known as Ostara has always been one with her holy purpose. She spent the early years of her being wandering through the mountains and valleys, making plants grow up green as the snow melted away. She learned to bring bright light to the people, and how to protect them from the hardships of living from the land.
Part 2
Sing hymn #61 or related preference.
Kids, what was that last thing you said in the affirmation? We believe in the sacredness of life? Do you know what that phrase means? We believe that living things are sacred, holy, magical, special. It’s our job to take care of living things and treat them with respect. “Living things” can include each other, our families and friends, but also animals and plants and bugs and fungi and even the whole planet.
And it’s funny we should say that, because the sacredness of life is what Ostara is all about. Not only does she believe that life is sacred, but she makes living things sacred by being near them. She brings the beautiful colors to the flowers, and the fluffy cuteness to the baby animals. She brings the music to the voices of the peeper frogs and crickets, and she brings the sparkle to the spiderwebs, and the wonderful smell to the rainstorms. Her magic touches everywhere that spring can go!
Let’s celebrate Ostara’s magic by singing a song about her, now. The song might sound very familiar - it has the same melody, and is full of the same Alleluias that were in the song about Jesus! We’re singing them both today because we are remembering that there’s no right or wrong way to celebrate the sacred things in life. Everyone learns the stories about gods and goddesses differently, and everyone feels a little different about them, too.
But, I believe the magic of spring is worth shouting Alleluia about! Do you? Let’s shout “Alleluia” together again, on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three… Alleluia!
Wonderful. Now we’re ready to sing the song.
Springtime was a little bit different in the place where Jesus grew up. It was a lot hotter there all year round. But even though they didn’t have bitter cold, snowy winters like we do here on the Cape, it wasn’t all easy summer living. Lots of people had really hard challenges. Kind of like today, a few people were really rich and a lot of people were really poor. Many of the people Jesus grew up around didn’t have enough to eat. Lots of people were also sick and injured.
Some people had a seriously bad disease called leprosy. Leprosy caused a lot of problems for the people who were sick with it, especially terrible sores on their skin. Nobody wanted to help them, though, because the healthy people were disgusted by these skin sores, and they were afraid of catching leprosy too. They didn’t know that it’s not very easy to catch leprosy from a sick person - you’d have to spend a lot of time with them to catch it.
When Jesus was a young man, he spent a lot of time taking care of other people, teaching them the ways of love and how to see God’s love in our relationships with other people. He showed those around him that it was important to be good to other people, even if they were poor, or criminals, or sick. In fact, he did what nobody else would do - he wasn’t afraid to visit the people who had leprosy and help heal them. He would reach out and touch them, as he prayed for the power of God to take away their sickness. Touching someone with leprosy was a gesture of compassion that other people were too afraid to do!
As Jesus continued to work to fulfill his special purpose to make the world a better place, he decided that he wanted to do something formal to make it official that his job was helping other people. When he was 30, he asked his cousin John, who also spent his life helping other people, to baptize him. John was surprised at Jesus’ request, since John believed that Jesus was already more holy than he was. But Jesus said it was important.
John baptized Jesus in a river by saying a blessing over him and supporting his back and head while he dipped under the water. Later, John said that right after Jesus was baptized, the whole sky split open, and John heard God say from Heaven that they loved their son Jesus.
Suggested service elements:
Offer a prayer.
Share a musical interlude.
Offer a ritual.
Sing hymn #1074, Turn the World Around
Part Three
Over the next three years after his baptism, Jesus did more and more teaching. And people really started getting interested in what he had to say. A lot of what he was saying was against the way powerful people wanted to do things at the time. And what happens when you talk back against somebody? That’s right - they get mad. The people at the top started to get worried that Jesus might mess things up for them with his messages about valuing our neighbors more than we value money and power. They started to grumble. But Jesus continued to share what his heart said was true.
Jesus also kept on doing miracles, which got the attention of whole crowds of people. He healed sicknesses and injuries, and occasionally it even seemed like he could bring the dead back to life. If there wasn’t enough food, Jesus magically made sure there was enough to go around. Jesus’ closest friends observed all kinds of unexplainable things happening around Jesus. They spread the word of how special he was far and wide.
But as these miracles and teachings made a bigger splash, Jesus started to tell his friends that he knew he was going to die. He realized that the people in power weren’t going to keep letting him do what he was doing, and they were going to kill him. Jesus felt that God’s next job for him was to accept that he was going to be killed. Jesus told his friends when and where he was going to die, and then started a journey to that place.
He arrived in Jerusalem in a big celebration, surrounded by people who loved his work and believed his special purpose. Once he got to Jerusalem, he went to the big temple and found people inside selling animals. They were advertising and making money, right there in the place for worship! Jesus was furious and he threw their tables over and shouted at them. He forbade anyone from selling or shopping in the temple. After this, he stayed in the temple for a long time telling the teachers and officials that they understood God all wrong. He told them off for putting themselves first, instead of taking care of their people. This made them even more angry with him, and they made a plan to capture him and give him to the government to be killed.
On his last night as a free man, Jesus gathered his friends around him for one last meal together. He knew that being together in a loving community was the most important thing. Late that night, he was found and taken away and imprisoned. The next day, on Friday, he was sentenced to die and executed on a cross. After the guards made sure he was dead, he was taken down from the cross. His family and friends were heartbroken.
Call for the offering.
Musical interlude recommendation:
O Sweet Radiant Mystery by Catherine Dalton
Everyone knows, Gods and Goddesses can do miracles. But sometimes, those miracles don’t always work out the way we expect them to. And just like the weather in spring, Ostara’s magic can sometimes be unpredictable!
Have you ever wondered why, on Easter, we have bunnies and eggs, even though rabbits are born as baby bunnies, and eggs hatch into birds? Well, that one is Ostara’s fault. You see, one spring long ago, a little girl was crossing a field on a frosty-cold morning. The girl was all bundled up in her warm coat and boots, and she was looking down at the ground to spot the early snowdrops and crocus shoots amid the melting snow. And because she was looking at the ground so closely, she managed to spot a tiny baby duckling on the ground, which had hatched early from its shell.
The girl stopped and looked closer. This duckling wasn’t doing so well. It was too young, and too cold, and the girl knew that the duckling was starting to die. Her heart went out to this little thing, so helpless in the chilly weather. She gently lifted the duckling off the ground and cradled it in her mittens. She looked around for help, and that’s when she spotted a flash of color. There were new buds on the trees at the edge of the field that she was certain hadn’t been there before - a sure sign that Ostara was near.
The little girl ran ahead, calling out for the goddess Ostara, and just as the morning sun flashed across her eyes, the shape of the goddess appeared before her. Ostara paused in her work and looked down at the little girl.
“Yes?” She said, “Be quick, dear, there is a whole lot of forest still to green today.” But despite her impatience, Ostara does love her people, and she gave her full attention to the girl.
“Please,” said the girl, “you have to help! It’s an emergency. I found this duckling, and it’s freezing, and it’s going to die. I need you to save it.”
Ostara peered closely at the tiny, bedraggled thing in the girl’s outstretched hands.
“The duckling will not live,” said the goddess, and tears began to fill the little girl’s eyes and roll down her cheeks.
Story Conclusions
Jesus’ family and friends were heartbroken. They placed him sorrowfully in a tomb and sealed it with a stone, and then they went away and mourned. Jesus’ friends felt hopelessly defeated. They couldn’t believe someone so special could be taken from them in such a terrible way. Three nights passed, cold and empty, knowing that their loving friend had been killed. Jesus’ mother, Mary, had been there when he was dying and she had helped bury him. Her grief was overwhelming.
On the morning of the third day after Jesus died, his mother Mary and two other women went to visit his tomb to pray over his body. But when they arrived, they found that the large stone which had sealed the tomb shut had been rolled away, and the entrance was wide open.
The women were shocked, they couldn’t imagine how this had happened. They entered the tomb to look for his body, but instead of Jesus, they found a bright shining angel standing inside!
The angel told them, “Don’t be afraid. You’re looking for Jesus, who was killed. He is not here, he isn’t dead. He is risen!” The angel urged them to go tell Jesus’ followers the news and, confused but filled with sudden hope, Mary and her friends hurried away to find the others.
Upon hearing this impossible joyful story, the people who loved Jesus found their broken hearts lifted up. They realized that it was up to them to carry on Jesus’ work in the world, and they would never be alone as long as they were making the world a better place with the message of love and compassion.
Just as the little girl lost hope for the duckling and the tears began to pour down her face, an idea glimmered in Ostara’s eyes. She placed her hands gently over the little girl’s own, covering the body of the duckling. The girl felt a sudden warm breeze blow across the field and heard a chorus of sparrows begin to sing in the trees above. Something in her hands was stirring and wiggling with a surprising vigor.
The goddess of spring withdrew her hands and there, where the duckling had been, was a small, fluffy, twitchy-nosed, bright-eyed bunny rabbit!
As the girl froze in shock, the bunny hopped from her hands to the ground and away into the maze of forest floor.
“Where did the duckling go?! What did you do with it?” she demanded of Ostara.
The goddess laughed.
“Girl,” she sighed, “I said the duckling would not live. But as a young rabbit, it has the warm fur it needs to survive these cold mornings. It does not live as a duckling, but it will live as a rabbit from this day forward.”
The rabbit did live and, touched by the magic of Ostara, it still lives today. Every spring, it remembers the goddess and the little girl that saved it. Somewhere deep down, the rabbit remembers that it was once a bird, and one magical day every year it makes eggs appear for all the little children who love springtime. And as you might have noticed, the Easter bunny’s eggs are special - they are touched with the bright colors of spring in honor of Ostara’s goodness. And every year, as we celebrate spring’s bounty, we are reminded that at times, we can only experience resurrection through transformation.
