Spiritual Resistance: Flipping the holiday script

Twenty to thirty years ago when I was growing up in the Mennonite church, we rarely observed Lent or Advent.  As a child I asked my mom why all my Catholic friends give up something for Lent but we didn’t.  She said, “Well, we try to live our whole lives in Lent.” 

Certainly there is much to ponder in that statement in terms of simple living, but the underlying reality was that Lent (and to a lesser degree Advent) where things that other Christians do but we Mennonites (and Evangelicals) don’t.

That’s no longer the case today.  Over the past generation more and more Mennonites (and Evangelicals) are recovering the traditions of Lent and Advent as periods of prayer, preparation, and spiritual renewal leading up to the two biggest Christian holy days. 

I believe that one reason for this recovery is that we are far enough removed from historical animosities to realize that there are good things in those “high church” traditions.  We are now able to admit that we’ve discarded too much over the centuries. 

But I also believe that another reason for this recovery is because we intuitively know that we need fully-formed religious practices to withstand the forces of commercialization and consumerism that continue to co-opt our holy days.

Our somewhat-Christian but secular and consumeristic culture lacks patience.  Therefore, a typical lead-up to and celebration of Easter goes like this:

Spring sales, candy, flowers, egg hunts, pictures with the Easter bunny, then off to church on Easter Sunday, followed by dinner at grandma’s, then it’s all over. 

This sequence is even worse for Christmas:

Thanksgiving, black Friday, cyber Saturday, more shopping, office parties, school plays, lights, more shopping, hot mocha peppermint lattes, shopping and finally some more shopping, then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then it’s all over.

Our society celebrates too early and ends too abruptly.  As a result, we suffer from post-holiday let-down.  The end result of the holiday is more disappointment and emptiness than lasting joy and fulfillment. 

The church needs disciplines of spiritual resistance to come out from this pagan rhythm and flip the cultural holiday script.  We can do this in two steps.

First, we resist the temptation to celebrate too early by observing the seasons of Lent and Advent.  Our worship and discipleship should mine these spiritual seasons for depth in order to curb our appetites and focus our hearts. 

Then, we resist the let-down of ending to abruptly by prolonging the celebration.  Easter should not just be one day of worship but a season of basking in the resurrection.  Sing Easter songs for weeks after Easter Sunday.  Don’t buy or use any Easter decorations or candy until after Easter (you’ll even save money by getting everything on clearance).  Have people over for dinner the Sunday after Easter Sunday.    

Do similar things for Christmas too.  Christmas is not just one day of presents but a time of resting in Christ’s presence.  Don’t sing Christmas carols until Christmas, but then keep singing them through January.  Recover the 12 days of Christmas and give one present each day for 12 days starting on Christmas. 

Flipping these holiday scripts would remind us as the church that though we are in the world, we are not of the world.  We may not be able to totally buck the system of consumerism around us, but we can set up spaces of sanctuary from the chaos around us through worship, prayer, and spiritual discipline. 

Easter Message

It is not the goal of the church to say anything new on Easter.  Rather it is the goal of the church to say something faithful to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The church gathers for worship on Easter to keep the memory and hope of resurrection alive. 

This is a vital act of faith; to proclaim the suffering love of God and God’s redemptive victory within the world of death.    

Jesus stresses three times throughout his ministry that it is necessary for the Son of Man to suffer, be rejected and crucified, and to rise again on the third day.  Jesus warned and told his disciples about this, but they were slow to download this message into their hearts and lives.  How could they?  This was complete and utter newness beyond their wildest hopes and dreams. 

Our society and culture worship at the altar of the new and the novel.  The world competes after hot takes and first scoops and innovative technologies.  Trendy is the currency of the day.  Something that is old is assumed to be obsolete. 

The gods of mammon and consumption, whether of things or ideas, and the systems of market production and technological progress have invaded imaginations.  And let us be humble enough to admit that these gods have infected our faith at times as well. 

The wisdom of scripture proclaims that there is nothing new under the sun. All this competition for the newest and latest is really the age-old human quest for power.  It is really just the age-old race to the top; the top of politics, the top of the market, the top of the academy, the top of the family, the top of our friendship circles, etc.    

All this has been done before, and so it is, in fact, all so very old.  This obsession, this race for the new and the novel has left a wake of disaster and will leave you stretched thin, tired, anxiety-ridden, and driven toward despair and nihilism.

It will, in the end, kill you. 

On Easter (as we should every Sunday) the church steps out of this very old race for the illusion of the new and the novel.  Instead of saying anything particularly new today, the church aims to say something specifically faithful. 

The church proclaims Christ crucified, Christ executed, Christ assassinated, like a common criminal, like a disturber of the peace. 

The scripture makes clear that he was executed by a perversion of justice between religious and political powers; a collusion of church and state.   

What was his crime?  He healed the sick and spoke good news to the poor.  He welcomed the outcasts and ate with sinners.  He spoke against sacred institutions, preached openly about the coming Kingdom of God, and called all to change their hearts and lives. 

           

But on that first day of the week as recorded in the gospels, something changed.  For the first time something new actually happened. 

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared, but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  The women were terrified, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5). 

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

It’s not there.  You won’t find it there.

The body of Christ is not to be found in that which is dying and decaying and fading away.  Rather the living of Christ is to be found out beyond the tomb, out beyond the places of death.

           

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed! 

So why look for the living among the dead?

That is the Easter question.  That is the Easter question that summons us to true newness. 

           

So often in our human quest for power we look for newness and significance among the tombs.  We settle for a mere resuscitation of what has already been tried before, but is merely repackaged and re-branded as something novel.

But Easter is not just one more go-round with resuscitated, old ideas.

Easter is about resurrection! 

John of Patmos recounts the words of Christ in the concluding witness of all of scripture, “See, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

This is Easter: Complete and total newness.  Not a resuscitation of old ideas.  Not a recycling of old and tired games into new and fancy packaging.   

Easter is about resurrection.  Easter is about Jesus, the son of God, entering into creation, suffering and dying at the hands of that very creation, but being raised up again to redeem, ransom, and transform all of creation into something completely new. 

Each of us must consider the burdens and sorrows that we carry.  Each of us must examine the sin that weighs on our conscience.  Each of us must name and lament the miscarriages of justices that are heavy on our hearts.  It is on account of these that Christ died.  But it is in spite of these that Christ now lives and calls us to follow him in newness of life. 

Because the resurrection is God’s answer and God’s solution to all our personal, social, and yes, even our political problems. 

It is only the hope by which our lives and our world are transformed. 

This is the resurrection.

And I believe in the resurrection.

And I have hope in the resurrection.

Both for this life, and in the life to come. 

Thanks be to God

Christ is Risen!  

AMEN