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Easter
- Thread starter robtex
- Start date
robtex said:
Easter supposedly commemorates the resurrection of Christ, but reputable sources link it with false worship. The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible says that Easter was "originally the spring festival in honor of the Teutonic goddess of light and spring known in Anglo-Saxon as Eastre," or Eostre. In any case, the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th Edition) states: "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament." Easter was not an early Christian observance and should not be celebrated by true christians today.
Jesus did not command his followers to commemorate either his birth or his resurrection, but he did institute the Memorial of his sacrificial death. (Romans 5:8) Indeed, this is the only event he commanded his disciples to observe. (Luke 22:19, 20) Also called the Lords Evening Meal, this annual event is still being observed by true christians today (1 Corinthians 11:20-26.)
lilithu
The Devil's Advocate
Hey Robtex, namaste!robtex said:
Thanks for the Easter thread; I was looking for one.
On Easter Sunday, I went to church.
Our minister gave a beautiful sermon where he tied a story about the discovery of a gastrolith in Utah (stone from the stomach of a dinosaur) with his own experience of awe when he viewed the Oregon mountain range for the first time - an experience that he called God. And then he went on to talk about God as mystery (as opposed to God as anthropomorphic father-figure). And how doubt and faith are not opposites; rather the opposite of doubt is certainty, and that there is room for doubt within faith. And he ended with how the gospel of Mark ends with questions unanswered; only fear and awe at the empty tomb. It was a beautiful sermon and I gave him a big hug for it.Then, I skipped lunch at church in order to rush home and prepare for company. My housemate and I shared Easter afternoon/evening with two Hindus, a Jain, a Pagan, an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and two lasped Catholics. My housemate served lamb and spring vegetables, while I provided other Easter essentials: colored eggs, chocolate bunnies, marshmallow peeps, and jelly beans (all nice pagan symbols of fertility). Then we all watched Jesus Christ Superstar! and I had a hard time explaining to the Indians how the trial and execution of the Christian God had been turned into a musical. I cried when it got to the part where Jesus prays in Gethsamane, as I always do.
All in all it was a lovely Easter, and when I related it to the chairman of theology at my Jesuit university on Tuesday, he said that only a UU would know such a broad range of faiths.
Dinogrrl
peeb!
I guess I'm one of those Christians who doesn't really celebrate Easter. I still go to church and have dinner with family and stuff, but it never felt right to me. More of like...something that was invented in the Middle Ages to keep the peasantry under control by giving them another holiday. Not that that's what it is, but that's the kind of feeling I get.
I personally celeberate easter as a SYMBOL of the resurrection of christ.The date as everyone knows,is the celeberation of Spring, for the godess Astre.So,the items of fertility,eggs,rabbits ect.The date must have been chosen by the Emperor Constentine,the nut,in working out a compremise with his religion Sol invicitus.The date should be immaterial,just like Sunday,which the whole world now accepts as the holy day for the Christians.It should be the sprit of celeberation.