Fellow Church People

[MartyMuppets]

Yes you're right Dwayne. Easter and Christmas have both sadly been turned into holidays drawn away from their original meaning.

When I think about how the easter eggs and chocolate bunnies are coming to the markets earlier and earlier all the time, same with all the Christmas trimmings, people are subtily focussing upon the commercialism and losing sight of the fact that they really are essentially celebrations of the Church that the general world has adopted as times for their secular calendar holidays.

But of course we who are part of God's Church will never forget theit sacred meanings Dwayne. Isn't that right?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well here's how I see it. Everyone complains that secularism is destroying the holidays. Meaning people wanting to purposely remove God from holidays, in a misguided attempt to avoid offending anyone. And I agree, I think it's gone way too far. But I don't believe secularism is the major problem.

I think the bigger problem is commercialism. And I think it's our own fault to a certain extent. We all, even spiritual people, over the years allowed Christmas and Easter to become more and more about gifts and candy. Now there's nothing wrong with gifts and candy, it's part of our celebration of Jesus' birth and ressurection, we should enjoy ourselves and have a good time. But we let the party take over too much, to the point where we forgot to invite the birthday boy!

As a result, Christmas and Easter's religious meanings were left vulnerable to attack by more secular groups. After all, if religious people can't honor the true meaning, how can we expect anyone else to?

 

[dwayne1115]

Well here's how I see it. Everyone complains that secularism is destroying the holidays. Meaning people wanting to purposely remove God from holidays, in a misguided attempt to avoid offending anyone. And I agree, I think it's gone way too far. But I don't believe secularism is the major problem.

I think the bigger problem is commercialism. And I think it's our own fault to a certain extent. We all, even spiritual people, over the years allowed Christmas and Easter to become more and more about gifts and candy. Now there's nothing wrong with gifts and candy, it's part of our celebration of Jesus' birth and ressurection, we should enjoy ourselves and have a good time. But we let the party take over too much, to the point where we forgot to invite the birthday boy!

As a result, Christmas and Easter's religious meanings were left vulnerable to attack by more secular groups. After all, if religious people can't honor the true meaning, how can we expect anyone else to?

Your right! that is it in a nut shell right there, but it is not just the Holidays that us Christians have "let go". Look around there are things going on in this contry and more then likely in our very States and cities that if us Christians would have taken a stand and said hey this is not right, then maybe we would live in a diffrent kind of place. Taking a stand for God takes a lot of guts and faith and i for one have failed on that. I want to do better and Lord willing i will.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Thanks!

Well, heh, no one ever said it was going to be easy to be a Christian (or any spiritual person for that matter). Just look at history.

It's never been easy to be moral, and it never will be. The truly moral people are the ones who stand out the most as being very strange. Because their values just don't always go along with the world's. Because they give up a lot in order to care for others. It's not what the world teaches us. We associate being generous with nice soft fuzzy feelings. In reality, being generous means losing something, and it can be very painful. That's why it's such an honorable thing to be. It's not for the faint of heart.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Well, as they say, the right path is usually the hardest.

I do agree about Easter having strong connections with chocolate and painted eggs, and I do love chocolate...but if you mention "Easter" to me, I usually think of the vigil Mass with the incense, the procession and the lilies on the altar, and the pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) that Mom does every year, and the almond-filled kringle bread that we make for Christmas and Easter. We always make a large loaf for ourselves, and a bunch of smaller ones for our priest and some of our neighbors.

Let's see...my grandmother always insists on making hard-boiled eggs (can't stand them, myself) at Easter...and if we get up on Easter morning and the first words out of our mouths aren't "Truly He has risen," she'll spend all day berating us for it. (But she'll berate us over anything - she's good at that, ya know.)

 

[dwayne1115]

I have always had a problem with compasion, and i wish i could get it right. I was in a very to the line church. They preety much condemmend anyone who was not liveing the way they felt God would have them live. They constently brain washed there people to forsake this evil world that even means your family!
I don't like the way they have drilled that into my brain, and it is so hard for me to get away from that mindset. If yall want to know more about the church i was in i will tell ya but i dont want people to get to mad.

 

[CensoredAlso]

That's great that you have so many traditions for Easter, I wish we had put as much thought into it. Though, we do have a good time, just by being together. (And the only eggs I like are scrambled hehe).

As far as Easter itself, I think we need to contemplate just how amazing the whole concept is. Many gods of the ancient world were all powerful and distant, and sometimes cruel. It was the people's job to serve the gods. In this case God chose to do something for us. He chose to go through enormous suffering and persecution that he didn't deserve, all in the effort to teach and to save his people. The idea that the Christian symbol is a man dying on a cross in order to save others, is incredible. And it remains so.

Again, it shows how difficult generosity can be. But in the end, you'll be able to say you truly made a difference in the world.

You guys probably know that the Muppets made an appearance on 60 Minutes years ago. One of the other guests in the episode (I can't recall who unfortunately) said he considered himself a radical, but not in the way you'd expect. He felt the most radical document ever written was the Sermon on the Mount. The idea that the least will come first in the end, that the meek shall inherit is a completely revolutionary idea. As well as the idea that those who are persecuted unjustly in this life will eventually be rewarded. People think Christianity and religion is all conservative and boring. I recommend reading the Sermon the Mount, it is truly radical and revolutionary.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I have always had a problem with compasion, and i wish i could get it right. I was in a very to the line church. They preety much condemmend anyone who was not liveing the way they felt God would have them live. They constently brain washed there people to forsake this evil world that even means your family!

Well I think it's very easy to dismiss the world as just evil and run away from it. It's much harder to try and help improve it and make it a better place. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus forsake or persecute sinners. He condemed the sin, but never stopped loving or actively caring for the sinner.

 

[Pork]

I agree that Easter, as well as Christmas, is wayy too comercialized.

I also agree that Easter is very important for a Christian because of Christs death for us. Taking the punishment we desereved.Easter is also about Christs Resurrection from the dead.

So yeah, basically I'm agreeing with what you guys have been saying. I do get extremely annoyed sometimes with all teh chocolate everywhere. I like chocolate, but not to the extent where I"m going to put it before Jesus!

 

[CensoredAlso]

The Resurrection is very important for me, because it's part of showing that there is always hope, even when things seem their worst.