Have A Grade-A Easter Sunday!

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

Many of us have been listening to news stories for a very long time about places and people doing away with Easter celebrations, Christmas displays, and anything remotely Christian in general. The excuse often used is that Christianity is exclusionary. We are told that not everyone is a Christian or that not all people celebrate holidays.

In my opinion, all of the aforementioned malarkey is simply another bullying tactic used by the Left to push Christians into a deep, dark hole where they want us to keep our mouths shut for fear we will be called bigots or worse. I, for one, refuse to go sit in their creepy corner and keep my belief in God to myself! To do so would be the same as Peter denying Jesus three times before the cock crowed. Not happening on my watch!

Nor do I intend to give up the joy of celebrating Easter. Not just as a celebration of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's triumph over the grave, but as a happy time of family fun. I am quite capable of knowing the difference between the religious aspects and the secular aspects of Easter . . . as well as being quite capable of enjoying both sides of this very precious holiday.

This year I am not in charge of anything for the family get-together. Although, I did buy some surprises for the grandchildren we will see on Easter. But, our daughter, Charly, has invited Pete and me to spend the afternoon and evening at their home. The kids will do their Easter Egg Hunt, we will give them their gifts, and lots of yummy food will be enjoyed! And, all I have to do is enjoy! This year I am much in need of that less stressful event.

I understand that everyone is not a Christian and that everyone does not celebrate holidays. I respect the right to worship or not worship as one wishes, as well as the choice to celebrate or not celebrate as one wishes. I merely ask that I be allowed the same options. And, by the way, I choose to worship AND celebrate!
So, to paraphrase the scriptures: As for me and my house, we will celebrate Easter . . . and Christmas . . . and . . . Valentine's Day . . . and the Fourth of July . . . and . . . In short, I will celebrate my religion, my country, and my holidays. I will use them as excuses to gather in prayer and in fun. I will celebrate my freedom as an American. Oh wait . . . I guess that is kinda not politically correct either, 'cause America is considered to be exclusionary as well. Oops, my bad!

So, politically correct or not, Happy Easter to my Christian friends and readers. May those who celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover be blessed as they pay tribute to God and their history. May others enjoy holidays or non-holidays to their liking. May everyone enjoy the renewal of springtime! A time of joy. A time to celebrate new life. Let us all stop and smell the roses, or lilies, or honeysuckle. Whatever is blooming wherever you are . . . enjoy it!

(Update of original, “Easter Egg Extravaganza” written on 2013-03-27)

April's Mixed Blessings

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

My life is usually a bit of a mix of blessings and not-so-blessings. I think life is like that for most of us. But, this particular weekend in April is seeming especially to be a bit of the good and a bit of the not-so-good. Easter and taxes all in the same span of days is quite the rollercoaster of emotional events.

In the bible, we are told, by Jesus, “. . . Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.” This quote can be found in the new Testament, Luke 20:25. Similar scriptures are to found elsewhere.

Now, I have no problem envisioning our greedy government as Caesar and I am totally on board with seeing the IRS as the tax collectors requiring we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. I am also all about rendering unto God that which is God’s. I pay my tithing regularly and do it with great joy. I am totally not so joyful about paying my taxes.

I realize governments need money to run. I also realize that our governments, at all levels, have begun to more run amok than merely run. We pay way more in taxes than we should ‘cause our governments are too large, too inefficient, too greedy, and totally out of control in almost all cases across this land.

But, as angry as I am about one more time having to render unto the IRS, I am more elated about once again celebrating Easter. ‘Cause, taxes are a temporary curse of this world . . . and, thanks to my Lord and Savior, so is death! Because He died and rose again, I can partake of eternal life. And, wow! That is certainly something to celebrate!!!

Thus, once again I will send off an electronic payment unto Washington, DC to render my taxes. But, oh so much more importantly, once again I will send off unto Heaven my heartfelt prayers to render my praises and gratitude! This is why, even on the Ides of April, I can smile and have joy in my soul.

I send out a greeting to all y’all that each might have a happy Easter and a blessed Sabbath Day . . . if Easter and Christian worship be part of your calendar events. If not, I pray you at the very least have a nice weekend and get your taxes done on time.

Sayonara,
Suzann
http://www.suziezoo.com
http://www.woolymammoth.org

How did Easter become so shlocky and shallow?

I was so glad to read this post by Mollie Hemingway in the Federalist:

Earlier this week I went to get my children Easter cards. I was in a holiday store that sells goods for Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Its Easter card selection was cute but didn’t include anything even remotely religious. So I went to the neighborhood card store to pick up something a bit more on-topic for the highest day of the church year.

Paper Source had a bunch of cards featuring bunnies. Some chicks. Dogs with bunny ears. Cats with bunny ears. One card was just bunny ears with no animal attached to them at all. The only remotely religious card was one making light of Judas.

...I went up to the counter and asked to be directed to the religious Easter card selection. The lady at the counter took me right back to the Judas card. Literally, a card teasing about Judas.

I love bunnies. I love chicks. And who doesn’t love dogs with bunny ears? I do not, however, like making light of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. That, and I would like to be able to buy my children over-priced Easter cards that get even close to referencing the Resurrection.

...Compared to Christmas, Easter hymns and art are far more difficult to secularize. Christmas is a story of family, and its celebration isn’t exactly undermined when it’s marked around hearth and home. The Triduum and Easter — about Christ’s rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection — are a bit more difficult to retain their meaning alongside secular celebration of bunnies and chicks.

...How did Easter become so shlocky and shallow? Philip Roth credits Irving Berlin for his efforts to “de-Christ” Easter in the 1948 movie “Easter Parade.” The movie has no religious images or meaning whatsoever. From Roth’s novel “Operation Shylock:”

...I heard myself next praising the greatest Diasporist of all, the father of the new Diasporist movement, Irving Berlin. “People ask where I got the idea. Well, I got it listening to the radio. The radio was playing ‘Easter Parade’ and I thought, But this is Jewish genius on a par with the Ten Commandments. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and then He gave to Irving Berlin ‘Easter Parade’ and ‘White Christmas.’ The two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ — the divinity that’s the very heart of the Jewish rejection of Christianity — and what does Irving Berlin brilliantly do? He de-Christs them both! Easter he turns into a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow. Gone is (sic) the gore and the murder of Christ — down with the crucifix and up with the bonnet! He turns their religion into schlock. But nicely! Nicely! So nicely the goyim don’t even know what hit ’em. They love it. Everybody loves it. The Jews especially … If supplanting Jesus Christ with snow can enable my people to cozy up to Christmas, then let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Do you see my point?” I took more pride, I told them, in ‘Easter Parade’ than in the victory of the Six Day War.”

...Good Friday is when we solemnly remember Christ’s crucifixion. On Holy Saturday we commemorate Christ lying in the tomb. And on Easter Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord. These celebrations begin at the Easter Vigil and continue throughout the day. We break our fasts with the sacrament and proclamation. And we celebrate as congregations and families for the days to come. So do that, rejoicing that we have the freedom to mark these holy days and mark them in safety, unlike so many of our global brethren.

...could we at least commercialize Easter and do so with a dramatically better selection of goods? Like many other Christians, I like to celebrate Easter big. In fact, I usually throw a party (not this year, though I am considering a “Make Pentecost Great Again” throw-down). That means I need decorations. I don’t mind bunnies and eggs and whatnot, but what I really want are lambs. Agnus Deis. Liturgical baking items. Empty tomb motifs. They are shockingly hard to find. And what about some activities for the kids? My little ones will be working on recreating this LEGO empty tomb thing this year, and I’m sure they’ll do a great job making their own fun and own decorations, but a little Christmas-style commercialization might not be a bad idea.

...The commercialization failures of American Easter aren’t a big deal, of course, particularly compared to the plight of others. No matter what happens with our Easter celebrations, may the message of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection bring comfort to the world.

Read more here.

Making the Gospel a comedy with our hypocrisy

Ann Voskamp writes at A Holy Experience,

You know they’re laughing at us all, right?

They’re laughing at us because the evangelist Creflo Dollar’s been out panhandling a campaign this summer for his own 65 million dollar private jet because apparently there are people going around with Bibles under their arms proclaiming personal jets are “necessary to spread God’s word,” because a luxury private jet is, in his words, “standard operating procedure for people of faith” — when in developing countries every second pregnant woman and about 40% of preschool children are estimated to be anemic and 1 billion poor people in developing countries live on $1.25 a day or less.

They’re laughing at us because some hackers slapped a site named Ashley Madison too hard on the proverbial back and the old girl, with her brazen tag line, “Life is short. Have an Affair” —- she coughed up the names of more than a few million account holders who paid bona fide bucks to hook them up with someone to aid and abet them in their premeditated decision to make a sham of their marriage vows. Ashley Madison hacked up more than one or two names of some well known, soul-hurting Christians.

You don’t want to know how the gossip and social media sites howled.

So what if — the idea went — what if somebody married the idea of pretty adult colouring pages with some calming, soothing Jesus quotes, with a bit of the very Word of God — and packaged the whole thing to hit the shelves by Easter?

Just in time for that gravy train headed toward Easter— you know, that time of year when we fall flat on our faces before the Cross of Christ because the Creator of the Cosmos rent open a vein and drained Himself dry for a hemorrhaging-to-death world. Which, you never know, might be the perfect time for us to go around peddling pretty colouring books?

You know they’re out there laughing at us all, right?

They’re laughing at us because we make the Gospel a comedy with our hypocrisy, and our lack of monogamy, and our puffed up religiosity and dishonesty and our self-righteous animosity.

They’re laughing at us because we trivialize the Gospel because we monetize it, because we cheapen it and we sell it, because we make ourselves comfortable with it —- instead of dying for it.

...The life of Jesus would radically suggest: The most conservative in theology, should be the most liberal in loving.

The life of Jesus would radically suggest: Don’t advertise your beautiful faith without advertising your broken-down faults — because those broken-down faults are the exact reason why you need your beautiful faith.

Read more here.

God transforms tragedy to triumph

Donald Sensing writes,

What Easter is, is that “Christ has died, Christ has risen.” Jesus’ resurrection means that the worst thing that happens to us is not the last thing that happens to us. Christ’s resurrection reveals that we do not die, “period”; we die, “comma.” On Easter God turns pain to power; God transforms tragedy to triumph and pushes through crucifixion to resurrection.

Read more here.

How can we make it sacred?

On this Good Friday Ann Voskamp writes that Jesus let His side be ripped open that our lives need never be split into sacred and secular.

Oh, but they are aren't they? Children are taught that Easter is the time when a bunny comes to their houses and hides brightly colored chicken eggs and brings baskets of candy. That's sacred? No, that's secular. How do we make it sacred?

"When Jesus came to life"

A little boy I met today was singing over and over, "It's Easter, It's Easter." I asked him, "What is Easter?"

He answered, "Candy and eggs and stuff." I thanked him, but then he added excitedly, "It's also when Jesus came to life!"

I gave him a big high five.

Repentance and bearing fruit

Giant corporations have latched on to all the Christian holidays with products to entice children. This Easter I am seeing more enticing products than ever before. How can Christians get the story out to children and others about what Easter is all about? How can we compete with the pagan rituals that seem to have moved to the forefront with the help of billion dollar advertising budgets and marketing campaigns?

I think Ann Voskamp has the answer. Her family gives thanks every day for God's grace. Today she shares three ideas whole families can engage and participate in.

What it's about

Ann Voskamp and her beautiful children are collecting maple syrup from the trees up in Canada. Trees are on Ann's mind as she writes,

Sure — everyone loves a Christmas Tree. But’s it’s that bent Easter Tree that guarantees His love for us.

And, just like us here in Colorado, Ann's family also got to walk in fresh snow.
Read here Ann's beautiful words about the true meaning of Easter.