It's Easter- so let me make a few things clear
So I was undergoing the pleasant experience of having more stitches pulled out of my gums, as my orthodontist rambled on and on. Knowing that I am a pastor, he made several comments thinking, I'm sure, that he was being a pleasant conversationalist and I would appreciate them. I didn't. Here they are and my reaction to them:
He said, "this is going to be a busy weekend for you."
Actually, this weekend is not much different than any other weekend as far as workload is concerned. The resurrection isn't just a once a year celebration for believers, but a constant party as our lives are being transformed by the power of our risen Lord. And for me, every weekend is important (um, busy?) because I gather with my church every weekend... and I wouldn't miss it for the world.
He said something like, "I guess your congregation will appreciate not having as long of a sermon since you're still recovering."
You know, this might be true since we don't turn in scorecards from people rating their reaction to the content and duration of each message. I certainly get a lot more favorable comments from the community crowd than the campus crowd, but I'm told that there are other reasons for that than appreciation. But I will say this, we get flooded with a philosophy of life from the moment we wake to the moment we hit the pillow 7 days a week. The world (meaning the world system, a pervasive materialistic/ hedonistic view of life), the flesh (meaning our natural desires taken to unnatural extremes), and the devil (meaning the real person of Satan and his demonic horde) are relentlessly preaching at you. And we will sit for hours and take it in.
All I ask is for about 40 minutes one day a week... or twice a week if you're a faithful Rocker... to offer a biblical counter point. Is that too unreasonable or intolerable?
Then he said, referring to God, "maybe the big man... or woman... upstairs will yadda yadda ".
Okay, the context is you're talking to a pastor about Easter which is connected with the celebration of Jesus Christ rising from the dead. Christians follow this guy believing him to be the Son of God, the savior of the world. In all 4 gospels, Jesus called God either His Father or our Father about 275 times. So if there is any gender to appropriately ascribe to God, according to Jesus, it's "the big man". Case closed.
Lastly he said, "Have fun (or good luck) hunting for Easter eggs."
Sigh... by this time I was experiencing psychological pain on top of physical pain. Easter and Easter eggs, in particular, were "...a sacred symbol among the Babylonians. They believed an old fable about an egg of wondrous size which was supposed to have fallen from heaven into the Euphrates River. From this marvelous egg - according to the ancient story - the Goddess Astarte (Easter) [Semiramis], was hatched. And so the egg came to symbolize the Goddess Easter." (Ralph Woodrow in his book Babylon Mystery Religion)
Historically, easter eggs have nothing to do with Christianity, and, as a Christian pastor, has little to do with me.
There I feel better now. Have a tremendous Resurrection Sunday!! He is alive!! Jesus has risen from the dead!!
Comments
Wow... sounds like it would have been hard to hold the tongue in such a situation! I had a similar situation with my brother tonight... he said something like, "Hot weather follows me everywhere... I miss snow. I should move to the polar ice-caps to guarantee cold weather!" (For context, he lives in Texas now for the first time, and hates the heat). I casually said something like, "If you moved there, you might cause those to melt and the world's water level would rise! Thankfully, the world can't flood completely again!" He immediately saw this as an opportunity to tell me the world never flooded completely, and quoted me his reasonings (mostly from a discovery channel show he saw and a book he read.) When I said my reasonings were in a book, he laughed. It was really hard not to lash out... but I just told him we'd have to agree to disagree, since I wouldn't change my mind about it, and didn't expect him to do so either. It is so hard to be loving at times... huh?
Posted by: Holly at April 3, 2007 11:03 PMThe thing with Easter and the eggs always causes me to shake my head in disbelief. I'll quote comedian Carlos Mencia as far as my answer on this whole deal of eggs and the resurrection of Jesus Christ became connected:
"How did that happen? Did somebody one day say, 'Hey, Jesus rose from the dead. Quick, hide the eggs!'"
Anyway, I hope to catch up with you Veishea Saturday. God Bless!
--Rob
Posted by: Rob at April 3, 2007 11:06 PMI'm laughing at Holly's comment: "hard to hold the tongue"(i love you, Holly!)... sounds like you didn't have much of a choice since his hand was in your mouth;) Or he probably would have heard the above, huh? ;)
Posted by: Jamie at April 3, 2007 11:57 PMHe is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Posted by: Ben W at April 4, 2007 12:01 AMHehe... my mom wants me to come home so that we can do our family easter tradition where we hide a bowl of easter candy for eachother somewhere in the house.
She reasons that it was a good thing for Christianity to "reinvent" all these pagan symbols and have "Christian holidays" on top of pagan ones in order to have them convert/get away from the other stuff. Where some people see enlivenment and new ways of expressing their faith I see people missing out on the fullness of God and confusing relationship with religion.
Posted by: Steve O at April 4, 2007 11:07 AMAll of your comments are great! Thanks for posting them.
Holly, I've watched that documentary. A common mistake by many regarding the flood is to assume the present-day world topography when considering the physical possibility of a world-wide flood. Evolutionary thinking of billions of years is so ingrained in people's thinking that to consider a Pangea only a few thousands years ago just never comes to their minds.
And yes, most of this "conversation" happened with hands in mouth.
Oh, and Steve, I appreciated what you shared. Of course, family traditions have value and I wouldn't catagorically dismiss the benefits of the easter egg hunting tradition, but we need to be aware that it has no biblical basis and, as you implied, can serve to distract or even replace the true meaning of this incredible event.
The reasons you get more positive comments from the community than from The Rock is because The Rock loves you more :)
And man, I hurt for you as well.
Actually it amazed me how many times I got asked on Sunday morning (by well meaning people I'm sure) if the Easter Bunny had visited that morning. I really really really wanted to say.. um.... i'm sorry if I'm the first one to break this to you, but the Easter Bunny doesn't exist... (hehehe)
Love you bro.
And Ben - HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!
Posted by: Matt Heerema at April 9, 2007 04:52 PM