Happy Easter!

I used to be Christian (good little Southern Baptist boy, saved and dunked) so I know a thing or two about the Christian Liturgical Year. Christmas gets all the press attention, but the real meat and potatoes of Christianity is not that Yeshua ben Yosef was born, not that he died, but that he rose again on the third day. Everybody gets born, eventually everybody dies, some of us come back, but hardly any of us come back. And by my count Jesus was out for about 36 hours, getting buried just before sundown on Friday and leaving the tomb around sunrise on Sunday morning. That’s 35:58 (+/-) longer than I was dead. And I call that a genuine miracle.

Why the bunnies and chocolate? During the Middle Ages (AKA The Dark Ages) Christianity was not as warmly as some would like us to believe, so aspects of the liturgy were “adapted” from whatever local faith was dominant in the area. Since Easter comes between two Pagan festivals, one minor (Spring Equinox, aka Ostara) and one major (the cross quarter between Spring and Mid-Summer aka Beltane) bits and pieces were stolen from both and incorporated into the cultural celebration of the holiday. Thus the bunny, eggs and chicks as representations of Spring and renewed life. Candy came much, much later. One particular English aspect, Morris Dancing, was lifted whole and (almost) unchanged. The name Morris is a corruption of Mary’s, the dancers were trying to entice a local goddess also named Mary to bring forth the Spring. And by outright lying that the Anglo goddess Mary was the mother of Jesus Christianity established a beachhead in the British Isles.

And now I’m going to enjoy my chocolate and hard-boiled eggs. You do what you want, within reason.

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Happy Easter on Wreck-Free Sunday!

Not going to say much today. I wish the happiest of Easters to the ones who truly follow Him, and know the meaning of his message. I’ll give you a hint: He drove the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip, but sat down for dinner with prostitutes and tax collectors. He healed the sick and the blind, but sent the rich man away until he gave away all his possessions. He saved the lover of a Centurion in spite of their same-sex relationship.

Remember the greatest part of the story of Jesus was not his birth, not his life, but his death and resurrection. The other stuff was important, too, but the resurrection was the important, important part.

If you truly follow Him, we are not enemies for we share a common goal. It’s all you other ones who claim His name but do the opposite of his teachings that I have the problem with.

PSA, Opus