Easter is coming this Sunday. It’s the greatest day in the Christian calendar, but much of the evangelical church pretty well ignores it. Maybe that’s a little strong, but in comparison to the time and energy we put into Christmas celebrations, we focus so little for Easter.
It has only been relatively recently that evangelical denominations have started to use Advent as a time to prepare for Christmas. I sense that there are far fewer evangelical churches that are using Lent in a similar way. It’s almost as if, we are so afraid of rituals – because of the way they have been abused & become dry & dull & stripped of real meaning – and so, we want to have little or nothing to do with them.
I wonder if part of it is we are better at seeing joy and victory – Christmas, Palm Sunday, than we are, understanding pain and suffering.
I have half-jokingly said in the past, we should bar people [I’m talking about people who profess to be Christians] from Easter Sunday celebrations, unless they have been part of Maundy Thursday and/or Good Friday. It’s a package deal. We cannot really celebrate on Sunday unless we understand Thursday/Friday.
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