I think Easter is the time of year I feel most left out as a Christian. It's the holiday, in my opinion, that is the most religious- religious in this sense being the ritualistic part that isn't necessarily written in the Bible.
So everybody's all, "Hey! It's Palm Sunday!" and I smile and nod, which doesn't really matter anyway since the "everybody" is on the internet and can't see me anyway.
What's Palm Sunday?
I assume it's the beginning of the week ending in Good Friday. What it has to do with palm trees or hands is beyond me. All the news says about Palm Sunday is it's some sort of day the Christians are celebrating in spite of scandals and questions about the pope. It even made the cover of the Gazette today, which is really unusual. Not unusual is how the first words of the article are negative or how in spite of the article's seemingly positive title, its content actually ends up having nothing positive to say about Christianity.
So that's what Palm Sunday means here?
What I find strange about all this is that in my experience, being a Christian requires a lot of googling. How come? Why isn't the Bible enough?
Granted, I still haven't finished reading it, but still, I've read the Gospels and don't remember reading about Palm Sunday.
Today, I was wondering about Calvinism and God's role in our faith and in our own life. And as everything comes in waves, a pastor I follow tweeted this article three times, so I figured I may as well look at it. If I understand right, Calvinism leans towards God having complete control over everything, no matter what we do and how we choose to orient our lives. And if that's true, I find it odd that there'd be a resurgence of Calvinism in the south. Or maybe not odd, but too easy. Does God really choose people geographically? And if so, why the Bible belt? Why not New York city, or somewhere with a little more influence rather than a place which, let's face it, is the butt of so many IQ-related jokes. If God was about making Himself known why would He pick the Bible belt? Unless it's like how the women were the first witnesses to Jesus' resurrection when they had no credibility as witnesses at the time?
But if Calvinism is true, why is there so much googling required to be a Christian? Why is it that if you don't grow up in church, if you don't accidentally find yourself born into that community, you have to learn the intricacies and rituals of it anyway?
What would Christianity look like if it was just Biblical and completely independent of prior Christian intellect, ritual and historical direction? Is it possible?
And can a Christian exist without the Bible? Can God not choose somebody who has never had access to a Bible at all? Does a person automatically require the possession of a Bible to be saved?
I guess the reply for that would be that without the Bible, they wouldn't know Jesus exists and if they don't know Jesus exists then they can't believe He is the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
But what if it really does come down to your heart being opened by God? What if God knows that you'd believe if you had exposure?
I honestly don't see any of my entourage coming to Christ because of anything I say. I don't think there is anything I can possibly say or do that would get them to understand God and Jesus in a way that drastically affects them. The only way I would ever get through is if God cracked open a window for me. That's the only way. And it's the only way God got me here too- a window opened in my hard, angry heart.
I do need to believe that my God controls everything. I need to believe that He is capable of anything at anytime with anybody. But at the same time, I tend to side with Tim Keller's idea that God is 100% in control and we are 100% free to live our lives as we choose and that the 200% concept is far, far beyond our realm of comprehension.
So what does that mean for Palm Sunday and all the rest of the Easter rituals I have no idea about (still)?
It probably means I don't have to google it all to be saved, but choosing a life without wisdom is kind of counterproductive.
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About Me
Why?
So this [the white blog] is where I [more specifically] write about the things that pertain to my learnings of Christianity and spirituality. For things of other nature, I use the other blog [the black blog].
I grew up a little bit atheist and a lot agnostic and fairly recently, I started studying Bibley things. This blog serves as a place to empty out my thoughts about religion things, along with scientific things in relation to religion things (I've got a BSc in biology), such that the readers of my regular, more day-to-day blog [the black one], who are mostly atheist or agnostic, don't feel imposed upon and are free to read when it suits them, while I don't feel stifled by what I perceive to be their lack of compassion, respect (and even the disdain in some cases) towards religion things. And there is peace in the universe. :D
I'd just rather the people I know approach religion learnin's with an open mind and a desire for it, rather than just read out of loyalty to my writing.
And the rest of the people who might stumble upon this blog? Well, feel free to respectfully agree or give me whatfor. Either way, as long as you've kept an open mind and aren't here to attack anybody...
Anyway, I explained in great detail here in my first post ever.
I'd just rather the people I know approach religion learnin's with an open mind and a desire for it, rather than just read out of loyalty to my writing.
And the rest of the people who might stumble upon this blog? Well, feel free to respectfully agree or give me whatfor. Either way, as long as you've kept an open mind and aren't here to attack anybody...
Anyway, I explained in great detail here in my first post ever.
10 comments:
Remember when Jesus came back into town on a donkey and all the people were excited? They laid palm branches in his path to honor him. Like a red carpet. Sort of. I think they do it now in church to remember that part of the story.
Ahhh, that makes sense. Thanks!
Palm Sunday is exactly that celebration of the Triumphal entry, and begins Holy Week, the week that includes Maundy Thursday (celebration of the Last Supper), Good Friday (Jesus' death), Holy Saturday (when Jesus was dead in the tomb), and then the new week (and the new church year) begins on Easter.
Perhaps this isn't strictly Biblical, but I have trouble seeing it as dead religion. I celebrate friends' birthdays, and I don't think of that as dead or stuffy.
As it happens, tradition also tends to agree with you about the possibility of those outside the visible church being saved. What John's gospel says is that they come through Jesus. What it doesn't say is that this requires conscious recognition of this fact on the part of the one for whom Jesus acts.
I don't think it's dead religion. I think Easter is important, but it's what I described that I have a hard time with- the stuff you have to google to understand. It becomes religion apart from Jesus when everybody knows the words but nobody knows what they actually mean, you know?
The closest thing to an explanation I've gotten so far from culture around here was a picture of the pope through palm leaves in yet another article slamming him. :D
Anyway, I get the reason for the symbolism, but to match it up on a timeline gets sketchy, and that's where in my head, it leans toward ritual rather than Biblical. You know?
Like if they did the palm path thing five days before the passover, and this year, the passover is April 5th, a Monday (right?) then the palm day would be the 31st, no? But then Christians do it by weeks and Jews do it some other way? Or my math is just wrong?
It's hard to know what's precise and what's a metaphor, even in the rituals.
I don't think the people you're complaining about really exist outside of irregular church attenders. If you want to know what these things are and you go to a church that celebrates them it's easy to figure out what's going on. Yes, it's obscure to outsiders, but most things are - that's sort of what defines "outsiders".
I do not know what makes it ritual rather than Biblical. In fact, the opposition of the two seems very strange to me. I mean, it's nice to pretend that we can go it on our own, outside of a church community and outside of any sort of reminders such as that provided by the liturgical calendar, but it doesn't really work. We cannot balance ourselves, because we would need to already be balanced to do so.
Passover does, as you pointed out, fall on a Monday. Which is why Easter is not correlated to Passover. Very, very early in the Church's history (probably within the lifetime of the gospel writers) the Church began to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, not Saturday, to mark the Resurrection (which occurred on a Sunday the year that it happened). So when people began more officially marking Easter as well (also early, but, I suspect, within the second or third generation of Christians, not the first) they wanted Easter to fall on a Sunday, too. So they jiggered the calculations.
I'll point out that an emphasis on the dates is also a bit weird. Sure, that's the way Western culture does it, but why? That's just as traditional, the tradition is just drawn from the culture. And when you're talking about the intersection of lunar and solar calendars that's also a bit strange.
Well, it wasn't so much a calendar date thing as a "the Bible says it's five days before the passover" timeline thing that confused me.
And um:
"I don't think the people you're complaining about really exist outside of irregular church attenders."
I'm in Quebec. That's kind of what it is. :D
But is it fair to complain that people in a culture that doesn't care don't understand? My lazy students don't understand what I teach. I hardly think I should be evaluated based on them.
It is when they claim to be Christian. And when they go around telling people they're going to hell. :D
Think about it this way, Eric: by the standards of the south, I'm a bad Christian because I'm not immersed in church among other reasons, and by the standards here, I'm a bad Christian because I don't know the rituals. Either way, the end result is without fitting into the church atmosphere where I am, I'll be a bad Christian. And the church culture here is one where you have to know it before you set foot inside a church. Catch-22. Which puts the emphasis on google. Which is what I'm complaining about, really.
If it's any comfort to you, the uber-religious Jews of Jesus' time thought He was a bad Jew because He didn't worry that much about the rituals and traditional trappings of Judaism. According to Jesus (check out the tongue-lashing He gave them in Matthew 23!), those kinds of people may seem righteous but are the furthest thing from being right with God.
It's an age-old problem called "hypocrisy" and I'd say you're a hundred times better off having a real relationship with God and not going to church than to "play church" your whole life, complete with its exclusions and empty rituals (made empty by, as you said, saying the right words but now knowing what they mean), but never really knowing God.
Church tradition is only useful insofar as it brings you into a more intimate relationship with God.
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