Showing posts with label passover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label passover. Show all posts

How to Crucify a Rabbit

Symbols get really messed up and thrown around by the pseudo-religious/secular holidays we keep having. I think the confusion will continue to grow as each invested party (ie, the market and the church) get more forceful and more extreme. I can't help but wonder if we're all just getting more confused.

Who is this Easter Bunny? What's his motives? Why would he give us candy for free? Can we take chocolate from strange bunnies? Is he in cahoots with this Santa figure who lures us in with the promise of free gifts? There's aksi a dead body in this story, did they kill Jesus to keep it a secret? Being God's son they must have figured He knew too much and hired the Judas to silence him. The Tooth fairy probably funded the thirty pieces of silver, he's pretty cashed up. And where are all those teeth going I wonder...
It's hard enough to pass on accurate information let alone all the hype. And now that I've got a daughter the prospect of telling her their's a bunny that lays chocolate eggs seems creepy. In a non-Christian sense even the new-life and fertility symbols of Easter have been forgotten for chocolate and excess. What does a hunt for chocolate eggs really symbolize? Do we really need an excuse to eat chocolate or give each other gifts? I'mlooking forward to focusing on the symbols that matter to me, and stripping away the rest. Easter is about freedom and victory, sacrifice and gain, Hope and rescue. For me, Jesus shows the world a way to find the freedom they've been looking for. I think symbols are important, they inform who we are and what we do. Think about whether your symbols are the ones you want guiding you, and if not, look for the ones that will inspire you.
Some cool links I found: Matt Stone Blog: Easter Fail Godspace: Resurrection Life - Christ or the Easter Bunny

Passover Delight!

As I'm not a Jew, you may think it strange that I'm celebrating 'passover' this year. It came to my attention recently (through this article) that Passover was not just a ceremony with relevance to Jews, but to all of God's people. God said that his people should celebrate it for...well for ever, remembering his mighty acts to bring about freedom, justice and hope for his people.

It appealed to me for a number of reasons - 
1. Easter had always seemed a bit hollow to me. The whole holiday seemed distracted by the fertility symbols that it had inherited from it's historical 'pagan' counterpart. New life is meant to be the theme, but with no real ritual or structure, it sort of felt like we were just trying really hard to think of what had happened on the Cross and what Jesus had done. Don't get me wrong, those images, mesages and themes are strong, but i guess they lost their meaning for me in the consumer hype and repetition without structure.
2. Passover is so interactive, why wouldn't it be awesome to interact with our faith.
3. community is intrinsic to the process and is built by sharing and learning together.
4. There's stacks of food to eat. We eat because we're free!
So I loved it, and tried to interpret the ceremony and the symbols in the light of our new understanding of being God's people as Christians. There was plenty to work with, but I found it a bit difficult to find info on Christian Passover. I'm sad that so many people of God are missing out on this great and wonderful message, with an outstretched arm, God has save his people from bondage!
Don't miss out! Get involved!