Christians adapt.  The churches of early years adapted so that the locals didn’t lose out on their parties and good times just to be a follower of Christ.  That’s why Christmas, the Christ Mass, is celebrated as Jesus’ birthday in midwinter instead of in spring (when shepherds would have been in the fields, watching their flocks by night).  It is celebrated during the time of the old festivals, like the Roman Saturnalia.  Feast! Party! But…Praise God, too!  It was, scholars say, an effort to be culturally sensitive.

For Easter, we have this day.  A day that used to be called Resurrection Sunday.  Easter is taken from the pre-Germanic word eostre (the direction from which the sun rises).  It is celebrated on the first Sunday (the day of Christ’s resurrection) after the Vernal Equinox.  (Often, this falls at about the time of Passover.)

Today, Christians also adapt culturally in many respects. Not every culture in the world has to learn the “original languages” of the Bible in order to learn about God — we try to translate God’s message for many nations and many languages.  There is no set of “righteous music” that anyone has to memorize or learn or prove expert in to be a Christian. People that have tried to impose “proper hymns” on other cultures have sometimes found them to be erroneous in culture context.

The message of Easter, though, is global.  Life after death. The love of God. The hope of eternity.  This Friday is “Good Friday.”  Did Jesus actually die on a Friday? I have heard excellent discussions that support and deny this.  He died.  When he could have saved himself, he died.  As was prophesied, his bones were pulled out of their joints. Not one bone was broken in his death, he was executed with criminals, and buried in a borrowed tomb.  All of this and more was prophesied about the coming Deliverer of Israel. And it came true.

After Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that separated the Holiest of Holies from the next chamber was ripped in half.  Not by a man, but by God, who needed no more “special access” ceremonies to gain his presence; his Son had become the bridge between Man and his Creator.

This upcoming weekend, my family is celebrating.  Not celebrating a torturous death of the only perfect man to have walked on Earth, but celebrating his victory over death. Because, on the Sunday after he was killed, Jesus appeared, alive, to many.  No, it wasn’t a mass delusion, but rather the miraculous reappearance of a man who was seen by hoardes to have been dead.  He walked, talked, ate, showed the wounds that he had suffered, and most of all, reassured his friends that he was alive and that they had to tell the world.

And they did.  All but John son of Zebedee suffered deaths that were sometimes torturous because they told others about Jesus.  For a joke, or for profit, people will perpetuate a lie. To preserve their reputation or their government. But to be tortured and die for a lie that one is telling is not in the nature of mankind.  But these people did.  And for centuries, people have believed their message of one perfect life given in sacrifice so that all of mankind can live forever with their Creator.

So if we celebrate a day that may or may not be named for a pagan goddess, if we color eggs, if we give chocolate bunnies to our children…if we do these things on a certain day, we have to make sure we share the reason we celebrate.

It’s not about the munchies, it’s about the Man.

Tags: celebrate, cultural awareness, death, Easter, holiday, Jesus, love, pagan, resurrection

I am not the most encouraging of people, I know.  I have an almost absurd positivity in sharing the Worst Case Scenario with people.  How bad can it get? Hey, I can tell you how bad.  Through research and anecdotal experience-mongering, personal moments, and sheer logical imagination (not a contradiction, I assure you), I can see through to the worst of things.   Why am I like this? I don’t know.  I said here before, that I am not an optimist.  It remains true.

Today, the world is filled with optimists, though. Folks who believe that if they believe hard enough, pray hard enough, do enough, ARE enough, that the Lord God Almighty will make everything all better. That wherever we are, it will improve. That “things” will get better.  That there is a chance, still, for Peace on Earth before the End of the Age and Jesus’ holy reign.

Now. It is right to pray.  Jesus, of course, prayed for the people of Jerusalem and he prayed for each of us who would come to follow him.  Prayer is communication with the Lord. It is RIGHT for us to seek His will and seek His path and seek His face. It is RIGHT that we should do so.  Righteousness is His alone.  ALONE.  We are so small.  So unworthy.

But so very loved.

Jesus quoted, as I wrote last time, the prophet Daniel.  He knew that all the Jewish men that were numbered among his disciples, his friends, would know of what he was speaking.  The verses he quoted spoke of the End of the Age, as that was what his friends had asked him about, on the Mount of Olives, just outside of Jerusalem.  But before the verse quoted, there was a lot more that Daniel referenced, and I wanted to share some of it, here.

Daniel 9:18 Listen, my God, and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city called by Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You based on our righteous acts, but based on Your abundant compassion. 19 Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

Often, I hear today that people think if they just pray harder, God will make it all go away. But that is not his way.  Daniel knew this.  He prayed and prayed and made himself sick, even, in grief about the visions and judgments he knew would be coming to his people. He confessed, on behalf of all his people, their sins and shortcomings. He begged the Lord Almighty for compassion.  But not because he or anyone deserved it. Not because they had done anything extraordinary (save being extraordinarily disobedient).  But sheerly based upon the Lord’s “abundant compassion.”

God answered.  Immediately.  Imagine the goosebumps on Daniel’s skin when it happened. But the answer was not, perhaps, what was expected.

Instead, the Lord told his treasured prophet (v.23) very clearly about the end of the world.  The abomination of desolation.  It was not a random word picture that the Lord told Daniel about, here.  It was a very real person.

Hundreds of years later, Jesus reminded his people about this person.  He is real. And he is alive today. And he is making preparation, as I type.

But someone will be coming ahead of him.

Daniel 11:20 ”In his place one will arise who will send out a tax collector for the glory of the kingdom; but within a few days he will be shattered, though not in anger or in battle.

I read this yesterday and whereas I cannot see who this is — for I am not a prophet! — I can see how this could indeed occur in the very near future.  Somewhere in the world.

But he is not the Abomination that Jesus refers to, either.

So yes, my brothers and sisters, pray.  Pray for the strength of God’s people. Pray for the peace of Christ to be made known to all.  Pray.  Work.  But remember, what has been decreed by God will be accomplished (v. 30).

And indeed, it has already been set in motion.

Tags: Abomination of Desolation, Daniel, Jesus, optimism, pessimism, taxes