So we’re two weeks away from Easter Sunday (now commonly called Resurrection Sunday) and one week away from Palm Sunday. So why don’t I care? Maybe because these two weeks mark just another year of redundant, irrelevant, ritualistic practices that give way for church folk to act excited about something that really doesn’t matter to every day life. Ok, so we’ll tie palms around our rearview mirror and maybe even buy a nice new outfit for our special appearance, but can we say that Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday really matter anymore. Is it me or does it seem like we just go to church to go to church. We go for the entertainment. How many more times are we going to do these “7 Last Words” Services! How many more ways can the 7 Last Words be preached – Goodness sakes! I’m sorry, but it’s getting really old really fast. You can tell it’s getting old when even the “heathens” don’t come out in full force for their yearly appearance like they do anymore. I mean think about it….we celebrate the execution of the Christ on Friday and justify it by saying “He died for my sins” and then we get up on Sunday and celebrate him “getting up”. Are we schizophrenic or something? Who’s side are we on? The oppressor’s side who killed Jesus or God’s side who raised him? I’m getting frustrated so I’ll end here. The theology of these upcoming weeks needs to be worked out a little bit more and in the meantime we just need to ‘fess up and announce to the world that we just like good entertainment – we don’t want to be like Christ; keep that cross. We just want to keep getting goose bumps over the fact that he died on his. Sorry “holy rollers” – I’m just tired of the routine.
11 Responses to Easter? Oh That Again…..
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Let me respond to this, too.
[To us, I believe] Easter doesn’t matter. Christmas doesnt matter. Sunday doesnt matter. Church, oh, now that matters. SUnday’s best clothes, that matters. The new conference, with that new gospel singer, and that other singer from down south, and that one from across the country, that matters. Watchnight service matters (on New Years). Christmas service matters. Making sure you say, ‘Giving honor to God who’se the head of my life…and yall who knows the word of prayer, pray my strength” matters (A Testimony just ‘aint’ without those two phrases).
Yeah, God is real. So is Jesus. And Santa. And halloween’s okay (it’s just candy). As a matter of fact, you better not teach your kids about Jesus and Easter-sunday, without giving them their rabbits & bunnies & eggs & baskets first. [Oh, and how did He die on Friday, get up on Sunday morn, but was in Hell for 3 nights....(sorry, my math is bad)]
Yeah, we have a form of Godliness, but deny the power thereof. Cuz a minister aint a minister til he been trough class and had he’s trial sermon. Don’t matter if he has experience hell & high water, and God birth a message in him. OR it dont matter that he graduated from seminary (magna cum laude) but can’t be pricked by the hand of the Lord when he is alone.
And people, no matter how gifted, aint really gifted and using it for God unless they on the choir or playin the organ. Forget those other gifts (culinary, horticulture, barber/stylist, painter, poet, computers, working well with animals, etc.). Those dont ‘fit in’ with the church. So we dont use them. Those arent really gifts.
I’ll tell you what: Jesus didnt whoop anybody else, according to the scriptures, than the people that was in the Synagogue (in the House), and were doing wrong. He ate with the publicans & sinners. He whooped us. “For him that knoweth to good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin”. However, he chastises those he loves. And it is better to have our sins opened before hand, and face the punishment, than to go unpunished, and have them opened at the day of judgement.
Whoop me now, Lord (…aww, man. Did I just say that? –Please be gentle?) (smile).
-RCB
“Maybe because these two weeks mark just another year of redundant, irrelevant, ritualistic practices that give way for church folk to act excited about something that really doesn’t matter to every day life,” says Heber.
Well, maybe it matters and maybe it doesn’t. The true question is to whom does it really matter. I’ll talk about myself. It does really matter to me. Why? Because although rituals and traditions are what they are…”redundant,” they were started to in most cases so I/we (those who believe) can remember. I need to remember. I ought to remember. I should remember and not forget. My goal for myself is not to become so ritualistic in the tradition that I do not remember why I do what I do, and am who I am. My goal is to be an advocate for the cause of Christ and true Christian development for every tradition the church practices.
I teach and find out the church is so caught up on what they, “are used to doing,” they do not know why they do it. They just think it is the right thing to do. So, I empathize with your frustration Heber. But what about when it mattered to you, to me, to the newly saved, to the child who wonders, to the teen who truely has a heart for God and wants to ‘know’ Him, or to the adult who now has a new/real/true breakthrough on the one or two Sundays they decided to come to church? If the church is complacent with the traditions of the church and do not have a heart to witness of the TRUTH behind the ritual, we should be that much more determined not to be apathetic in what we do.
If we do not believe God is the Author and Finisher of our faith, in the CHRIST, which includes the death and the resurrection then we need to reevaluate who we profess that we are. Without the permissive will of God, there would be no cross for us to keep. In my evaluation of myself, I am surely not schizophrenic or claim to be a holly roller. I am just a CRAZY BELIEVER! Be blessed!
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