Tag: Easter

THE EASTER EGG & THE EMPTY TOMB

Although Christianity is essentially a form of Judaism, over the centuries the Christian Faith has incorporated and inculcated itself into the various cultures of Pagan societies. So Christianity’s spiritual inheritance is a blend of ancient Hebrew faith mixed with some Christianized archaic Pagan practices. And while this fact is often greatly overstated these days by those who wish to discredit and malign Christianity, the reality is that Christian observances (such as the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ) include some formerly Pagan elements as well. Consequently, things like colored eggs, bunny rabbits, and so on, have been given new and eternal significance by the grace and truth of God revealed in Christ our Savior. For “God has placed all things under Christ’s feet and has made him the head over all things for the church…” (Ephesians 1:22).  

Moreover, while the name of the annual celebration of the resurrection of Jesus maintains its Hebrew roots in many non-English languages (Pascha in Greek, Pascua in Spanish, etc.), in English the name of this most holy of all Christian holy days is taken from an Anglo-Saxon spring festival centered on the goddess Eostre, a Germanic goddess of the sunrise whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. So this is only the case in English (Easter) and German (Ostern), not in other languages. In most languages, the paschal connection between the celebrations of Passover and Holy Week is maintained, stemming from the Hebrew root word of Pesach.

Now that all this has been said, how are we Christians to regard symbols like colored Easter eggs?

The egg is an obvious candidate for a resurrection symbol of renewal and regeneration. The egg has been honored during many spring rites throughout the ages: Egyptians, Jews, Persians, Romans, Celts, and even the Chinese, have all understood the egg as representing new beginnings. Whether it was the commencement of building a bridge across a river, sowing a field of wheat, or launching a new fishing boat, the egg was used as an emblem of renewal. So Christians naturally adopted the egg symbol to specifically and preeminently represent the new life received through the cross and empty tomb of Jesus. For, again, “God has placed all things under Christ’s feet and has made him the head over all things for the church…”

The good news is that God enacts, establishes and extends his absolute love for all nations and peoples through the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ the Son of God, offering the free gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life to everyone by God’s grace through faith. Therefore, according to the biblical gospel, Christianity ascribes the ancient Hebrew symbolism of the Passover lamb and the archaic Pagan symbolism of the decorated egg to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Universal Messiah.

So for us Christians, a colored Easter egg (and its emptied shell after eating it) represents the empty tomb, and it calls us to be empty tombs as well. For the truth is that we can sometimes be overwhelmed by our unrealized expectations, disappointments, losses and grief; we can sometimes be overcome by despair, frustration and an apocalyptic mood. We can become so spiritually and emotionally severe that we become tombs filled with the deadly stench of judgment and condemnation, directed at ourselves and others. However, we must realize that we cannot force the Kingdom of God to be perfectly manifest in others any more than we can force God’s Kingdom to be perfectly manifest in ourselves. So we must love and forgive ourselves and others, just as God loves us and forgives us in Christ.

In other words, by the grace of God, let us become empty tombs in our lives — empty of our desire to control and our attachment to specific outcomes. By God’s grace, we must LET GO and LET GOD! By God’s sovereign grace and will, let us TRUST IN THE LORD and be at peace. God is the Lord of human history (including you and me) and God’s steadfast love endures forever.

“O give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:2)

Blessed & Happy Eastertime!!! Pastor Tim

BORN TO ETERNAL LIFE

On the Fourth Sunday of Eastertime a few weeks ago, which also was Mother’s Day, I shared a story in my sermon that many people asked me for a copy. So, I thought I’d include it in my article for the June issue of our Olive Branch newsletter.

This wonderfully imaginative story is about fraternal twin babies in their mother’s womb discussing life after delivery, and while it’s originally attributed to the great Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen, there are many different variations of it. The following is the version I used for my sermon…

One of the twin babies asked the other, “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Of course. There has to be something after delivery. And maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.” “Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?” The second said, “I don’t know exactly, but I feel there will be more light there than here. Not that faint red glow we sometimes have here. Maybe we will be able to move around more freely and journey to places we just can’t understand right now. And maybe we will have other senses that we can’t yet understand.” The first replied, “That’s absurd! Ridiculous! This umbilical cord supplies everything we need. But the umbilical cord is too short, so life after delivery is to be logically excluded.” The second insisted, “Well I think there is something, and maybe it’s just different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this umbilical cord anymore.” The first replied, “Absolute nonsense, and furthermore, delivery is the end, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but oblivion. It takes us nowhere.” “Well” said the second, “I trust in Mother, and when we get to meet her in the after-delivery, she will show us all these amazing things.” The first replied, “A Mother? You actually believe in a Mother?! That’s laughable. If a Mother exists, then where is She right now?” The second said, “She’s all around us. We are surrounded by Her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live and move and have our being. Without Her this small confined existence of ours would not, and could not, exist.” And the first said, “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.” To which the second replied, “Well sometimes, when you’re in silence, and you focus and really listen, you can feel Her Presence.”

This ‘embryonic’ mortal existence we are journeying through is temporary, and one of my preferred terms for our physical death from this world is “Born to eternal life.” And you know it’s been said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience — an experience that is so very brief in the grand scheme of things.

However, the good news of the gospel of Christ our Good Shepherd leads us to the supreme joy and hope of heaven. Therefore, the reality of heaven (an eternal existence of true and never-ending happiness) is a central part of the honest-to-goodness gospel of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So simply because we live in a cynical and jaded time, we as Christians should not shy away from or downplay this great Easter truth and grace of eternal resurrection life. Rather we should embrace this heavenly faith, and then live lives of compassion and service in the name of Jesus. Because Christ is risen and because we too shall arise through him, we must live our lives right now according to the Word of the Lord in Micah chapter 6…

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Jesus is risen beyond this impermanent existence, and we are his sheep who are to hear him and follow him for the sake of a better world for all people and for an eternal heavenly future by his grace.

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

THE ISRAEL OF GOD

After our Lenten journey of penitential contemplation and intensified spiritual devotion, we come to the pinnacle of the Church Year known as Holy Week.  It is the time of year we focus on the events of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his last supper, his torture, his crucifixion, his sacrificial death and his glorious resurrection.  So as I reflect on the sacred events of Holy Week, I find myself drawn to the following words of the Apostle Paul from the Book of Galatians:

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith made effective through love.” 

The Holy Bible, Galatians 5:6

“For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!  As for those who follow this rule – peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

The Holy Bible, Galatians 6:15-16

The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Christians in Galatia in order to remind them of the New Covenant of God through Christ, based on God’s universal grace, not on religious works prescribed by the laws and ordinances of the Old Testament (as it says in Galatians).  He reminded them (and us) that the New Testament of Christ fulfills all the promises and covenants of the Old Testament for all people everywhere, not just for Jesus’ fellow Jewish people. 

As a result of this, God’s promises and covenants to the Hebrew People (which are still in effect for them) are now also universally extended to all people by God’s grace in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  So, while there is still the literal People of Israel (the Jewish People), there is also an expanded spiritual “Israel of God” (the universal Israel in Christ Jesus) which is everyone who trusts in the Lord: including Jew and Gentile, male and female, black and white, Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, and so on (see Galatians 3 and 6). 

In both Galatians and Romans, the Apostle Paul writes that all people are “heirs” of God’s covenant promises to Abraham by God’s grace through faith in Christ.   From Galatians 3 and Romans 3, we hear that all people are “descendants of Abraham” and “heirs according to the promise” by “the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe.” 

Therefore, even the promised blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant are now extended to everyone everywhere by the Christ/Messiah of God, Jesus (or Yeshua in Hebrew for Joshua, meaning “God Saves”), and not by our own religious works prescribed by the law.  In other words, the Abrahamic inheritance given to the Hebrews is now renewed and broadened to include every single one of us by faith in Christ!  Thanks be to God!  Consequently, the Apostle Paul declares that all distinctions (circumcision and uncircumcision, Jew and Gentile, etc.) are nothing, and they count for nothing.  All that matters now, he says, is the “new creation” coming into being by the unconditional love and all-encompassing grace of God revealed to the whole world in and through our Lord Yeshua (Jesus), the only begotten Son of God.  And St. Paul adds that the only thing that now counts is our loving response to this free grace of God in the form of charitable service — or as he calls it, “faith made effective through love.”

Like Joshua in the Old Testament who led the ancient Israelites into the land of Canaan through the waters of the Jordan River, our Lord Jesus is the New Joshua who leads us into the universal promised land of salvation and the Kingdom of God through the waters of Holy Baptism where we are born again from above by his Holy Spirit within us. 

Yes, as Christians, our faith is all about the New Inclusive Covenant, heralded and set in motion by the New Universal Joshua (Jesus).   And just as God empowered the People of Israel with the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament, God has given us the Word and Sacrament of Christ to empower us in Christian faith and life.  Just as God’s Shekinah Presence (Glorious Presence) mysteriously and uniquely dwelled between the wings of the cherubim on the Ark, so also God’s Holy Shekinah Presence is uniquely and powerfully made available to us and for us through the Sacrament of Holy Communion so that we may abide in the faith, hope and love of our Lord and Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).

Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will return!  Almighty God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — bless us (the members of the expanded “Israel of God”) now and forever!  Amen!

Blessed Holy Week & Happy Easter!!!

Pastor Tim