I do believe that God and Mother Nature teamed up today -Easter Sunday - a day when Christendom celebrates the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Yesterday's newspaper was filled with ads from area churches touting their service times and themes. How though, I must ask myself, can the theme of today really differ? I suppose these churches might mean that they have different service styes, rather than themes but how can the theme of rolling the stone away and seeing an empty tomb be served up in varying themes?
OK, so a topic for a theological seminary class. But, I maintain that Easter Day is a curious mix of religion, faith, Hallmark, Hershey chocolates, Peeps, theology, honey-glazed hams, hot-cross buns, jelly beans, bunnies, and candy-filled Easter eggs. Even Christmas is not as schizophrenia-filled as Easter. At least with Christmas you mostly have baby Jesus and Santa Claus competing with each other. Sure, Hallmark gets its fair share of the Christmas market as does the retail industry but it just seems that Easter is so fractured with icons that it is difficult to focus on whichever meaning your faith (or lack thereof) deems important and worthy.
Is it not oxymoronic that so many churches sponsored and held Easter Egg hunts? Bunny ears in church on Easter Sunday? Really? I'm no Easter Scrooge, or at least I didn't think I was but do I not detect inconsistency here?
Even Mother Nature got into the dissociative-identity-disorder contest today. The day began just like Christians pray for.......a beautiful sunrise and abundant sunshine for hours afterward...........at least in my corner of the world. Midway through the afternoon, the skies clouded over and the wind began to blow, blowing hard enough that the woods behind our condo became noisy and the trees nodded to one another with vigorous movements. It looked as if it might rain, even though rain was not predicted. This cloudy and windy combination lasted for several hours until just a few minutes ago when the sun has reappeared and the sun is once again visible in the distance.
I must close. A good friend gave me an Easter Basket at church today. Those Dove Easter eggs are calling to me.
I might as well join in the schizophrenic celebration. After the eggs, I'll eat a slice of Smithfield ham followed by some tasty, yellow Peeps.
I hope Jesus understands.
Ancora imparo
