He is Risen and yet we cower in the mud

From the New International Version, Luke 24: 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words.

Once again, we gather together to remember that we serve a risen Lord! This fact was made absolutely clear to the women who went to the borrowed tomb to anoint and wrap Jesus' body properly for burial. It had been three days since they had watched him die upon the cross, bearing the death of a common criminal when he was blameless and perfect in every way. He bore this death and shame for us, to pay the penalty for our transgressions. He bore it for the very soldiers who nailed him to that cross.

Is this what you are reminded of when you think of Easter? Are you reminded of our Lord's passion and sacrifice? Are you concentrated on the hideous death he bore unjustly for you? Too often I think we as Christians get the mission of Jesus upside down. Do we not realize that Christmas is nothing more than the promise of Easter? If not for Easter, there would have been no reason for Jesus to come to Earth to live as one of us.

We go all out for Christmas. There are presents and parties and special services. Christmas has many special songs associated with it. Other than Easter Song by Second Chapter of Acts and He's Alive by Don Francisco, how many songs about Easter can you name? No, Easter Parade doesn't count!

Easter doesn't even have a specific day assigned to it like Christmas does. It fluctuates according to the cycle of the moon since it is set for the first full moon after Passover. This seems strange to me. Don't I recall reading in Matthew 26 that Jesus and his disciples had a passover Seder together and that Jesus was taken by the priests and pharisees that very night and he was put to death the very next day? If Pasoch (or Passover)is specifically set as the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Aviv, and we know the chronology of the Passion and the Resurrection took three days, then how can Easter be celebrated 14 days after the first full moon to follow Pasoch?

Something else I find disturbing is the ways in which we choose to celebrate our risen Lord. We color eggs which we hide and then seek out, which was a rite of spring followed by those who worshipped Baal and Asherah, his mother. There are images of rabbits everywhere which invokes an Egyptian symbol of spring. Does the phrase "back to Egypt" bother any of you? The argument had been made that the Early Christians could not openly celebrate Jesus, upon pain of death, so their religious leaders found ways to camouflage their celebrations within the pagan celebrations that took place at certain times of year. This tendency to blend in became woven into the calendar and rituals of the early church.

Has anybody else out there thought about why our churches are still trying to help us blend in 2,000 years later when there is nobody out there calling for our blood? Maybe the reason nobody wants to martyr us is that we have been too busy blending in to be a "city on a hill"! We are no threat to the evil that so corrupts our world so we have been left alone. So we color eggs and eat chocolate figures of rabbits. (Isn't the coney, or rabbit, listed as an animal that was considered unclean? And yet we invite a giant rabbit into our churches on what should be the holiest observance on our church calendar!)

We dress up in new clothes we bought specifically for this one day because we need to look especially nice on Easter! We check out what everybody else is wearing. My Mom used to make either Dad or me wash the car for going to church on Easter Sunday.

So, let's tally all this up, shall we? We celebrate the holiest day in our church calendar on the wrong day, dressed like fashion plates, with pagan symbols in a church defiled by unclean creatures all in the name of fitting in with our pagan neighbors. Does that about sum it up? I know some other words that would sum it up. Blasphemy! Apostacy! Idol worship! Are we not told to separate ourselves from the world?

Repent! Now! Return to the ways that we were meant to follow! Seek out the meanings and the guidance in God's Holy Word, which is His love letter to us, His children! It is because we continually refuse to follow the guidance spelled out in the Scriptures that we have come now to the point where what we have built is about to consume us. We are a hairsbreadth from a new Babylonian captivity and this one will make the cruelty of the ones gone before seem tame, indeed. We have one choice and that is to turn back from the things we have done wrong for all this time. Or will we sit back in comfort and stuff ourselves with Easter ham and boiled eggs from which we peel colored shells?

Lord, help us to turn back to you, to follow the way that is right and true! We have wandered like one blind in the wilderness. Help us to see what is right in your eyes and to have the courage to do it! Show us the way in which we should acknowledge the debt you paid for use on the cross of Golgotha. Help us to return to what you would have us be and worship you in holiness! In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen

Update: Good news and Bad News

Good news: I found a way to buy a fishing license.
Bad news: It seems like every time there is nice enough weather for me to get out there, my wife becomes otherwise occupied and I have to stay here to look after her mother.

Good news: I am developing more of a web presence and more readership for my writings.
Bad news: None of the new readers are subscribing, either, and my computer no longer recognizes my digital camera so I can't add any pictures of my exploits anyway.

Good news: I found out that all that was wrong with the camera I inherited from my Dad was that it needed a new battery for the shutter mechanism.
Bad news: The camera my wife bought on ebay turned out to be a hunk of junk so now she is using mine for her next photography class so she can have one camera loaded with color and one with black and white film.

Good news: I was invited to send in a resume` and application for a job with Northrup Grumman.
Bad news: I didn't get it.

I feel like David when he was on the run from King Saul. Every time he thought he was making some headway, the king went nuts and tried to kill him again. I know that the Lord is my rock and my deliverer and that His timing is perfect. Still it is difficult to wait when His timing seems to be taking longer than I may have left. I know I am effectively saying, "Lord, give me patience now!" I guess what I should be saying is, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!

It is difficult to remember at such times as these that the major portion of The Holy Bible was written about such circumstances as these and worse. Were it not for such trials, how would the miraculous power of God manifest itself?

It reminds me of a story Jerry Clower used to tell about a man on a trip through the mountains on a mule. The trail became steep and narrow and the mule stumbled causing the man to fall off. He caught hold of a bush growing from the side of the cliff and started to call for help. He did not know that there was another trail only a few feet below him that could not be seen from the upper trail and there was a man traveling on it. The other man positioned himself to catch the man hanging from the bush as the hanging man said, "Oh, God! If you're up there, please help me." The man on the lower trail called out in a voice that echoed around, "Brother, have faith and turn a'loose!" The voice had echoed so much that the hanging man couldn't tell from which direction it had come. He thought a minute and asked, "Is there anybody else up there?"

Lord, help me to find the things I need to turn loose of so that I can find the help that I need. I know that you can see the problem far more clearly than I could ever possibly see it. I'm trusting you and I know you are there to catch me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.