#128 The Most Important Day

Last week I read a brief report about the horrible bombings that took place in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. The report described Easter Sunday as "one of the busiest and most important days for Christians worldwide." That description has stuck with me. It's definitely not inaccurate, and it's typical language for a news service to use. But all I could think when I read that was "No no no no no. Easter is the most important day for Christians." There's no comparison. This isn't up for debate. I get that Easter can't really be separated from Christmas and Good Friday (and, for that matter, Ascension Day and Pentecost), but Easter is the reason we're Christians. Jesus' disciples truly started believing Jesus is the Son of God was because God raised Jesus from the dead. The Christians went out and started preaching the good news to the whole world because Jesus is alive.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul argues that Jesus' resurrection is the key to our faith. Without Jesus' resurrection, Christianity is meaningless. If God didn't raise Jesus from the dead, we don't have life. Death is the end for us. Easter means resurrection and life for all who belong to Jesus. And beyond that, Paul says that Jesus' resurrection points to Jesus' reign as king of the whole world. Easter is the sign that Jesus is setting right all that is wrong with the world, conquering all His enemies, making His creation the way He always intended it to be. Easter is Jesus' victory, and, because we belong to Jesus, Easter is our victory.

Now you may be thinking, "What about Good Friday? Isn't the cross the symbol of Christianity? Doesn't Paul often talk about the importance of the crucifixion?" That's right. Don't get me wrong. Jesus' death on the cross is absolutely necessary for us. Jesus pays the penalty for our sins through His death. (He also does other things through His death, but we'll save that for another time.) But Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 15 that there's no forgiveness for us without the resurrection. Jesus' resurrection confirms and puts into effect His work on the cross. What's more, despite what we may think, Christianity isn't ultimately about the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is a huge part of it, but Christianity is really about God completing His plans and redeeming all parts of His creation. God doesn't just forgive us, He also makes us new and gives us life. God isn't just saving humans, He's also repairing His world, making everything the way it's supposed to be. Easter, Jesus' triumph, the first day of a new creation, expresses that so much better than any other day of the Christian year. We don't gather for worship on Fridays. We worship on Sundays.

Brothers and sisters, let's make sure that no one doubts that Easter Sunday is the most important day of the Christian calendar. Let's make sure that we don't boil down the good news to simply "Jesus died for us." He absolutely did, but that's not the whole story. He also rose again and lives forever for us. He will also raise us again so that we may live forever. Jesus was dead. Now He lives for ever and ever. That's the good news we celebrate. That's what gives us hope. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#127 Hide and Peek

Tess and I have a two-stage bedtime routine with Lanie. After we go upstairs to Lanie's room, I do some reading with Lanie, and then Tess sings to Lanie and puts her in the crib. In between reading and singing I leave Lanie's room and hide. When Lanie finds me, I race to catch her before she can get back to Tess. We've been playing this little game for several months now. Lately Lanie has decided that she needs a turn to hide as well. She exclaims, "Me hide!" and I scurry back to her room to give her a chance to conceal herself. Lanie understands the concept of hiding. But she doesn't understand the concept of staying hidden. Many times she starts giggling loudly as soon as Tess tells me that I can come looking for Lanie. And even when Lanie stays silent, she's almost always too excited to wait. So she peeks out from her hiding place, grinning from ear to ear, practically begging me to come get her. It's absolutely adorable. And when she finally does decide to stay hidden someday, I'll be so out of practice that it'll take me that much longer to find her.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#126 Religion

Every so often I hear someone say, "Christianity isn't a religion" or something along those lines. Statements like that drive me nuts. I get what we're trying to say there. Christianity isn't like other religions. Our beliefs center around God coming to earth and becoming human in order to save us. We Christians don't believe we can earn our salvation by doing enough good works; we believe salvation is freely given to us. We believe God is relational. The three persons of the Trinity are in relationship with one another, and God desires to be in relationship with His people, loving us and receiving our love. If you picture religion as a quest for humanity to reach up to God or a bunch of people worshiping a distant, vengeful deity, then Christianity is different from that.

But while Christianity doesn't fit some people's conceptions of what a religion is, by any common definition, Christianity is a relgion. We believe in and worship a supernatural being. While we don't believe we need to earn God's favor, we do orient our lives around trying to live for God and do things that please Him. Christians meet together for worship services and have spiritual practices we share. We have a sacred text, the Bible. Saying "Christianity isn't a religion" requires a lot of explanation to make sense. Even if we're talking to someone with a very negative perception of religion, we still would have to go into detail about how Christianity doesn't fit that negative perception.

What's more, saying "Christianity isn't a religion" can easily come across as arrogant if we're talking with someone else who follows a different religion. I don't believe all religions are the same. I don't believe any set of beliefs will lead you to God or the truth about God. I believe different religions have contradictory beliefs, and I believe salvation is found only in Christ Jesus. However, while I don't believe other religions are true, I don't believe there is no truth in other religions. For example, Muslims believe God is merciful, and Christians believe God is merciful. Buddhists believe that overattachment to earthly things hurts a person's spiritual life, and Christians believe that overattachment to earthly things hurts a person's spiritual life. If we Christians are going to have conversations with people with different religious beliefs, I think a good place to start is finding places where our beliefs line up. Certainly we eventually need to talk about how and why our beliefs are different, but just coming out bashing everything a person believes generally just puts them on the defensive and doesn't make them open to hearing what you have to say. Plus, I think these overlaps in our beliefs can help strengthen our argument as Christians that there is only one God, and He reveals Himself to humanity.

So let's be clear that we Christians aren't exactly the same as everyone else. But let's not give anyone the false impression that Christians are completely different. Let's have thoughtful and careful dialogue when it comes to explaining what we believe.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#125 Time to Pray

My daughter Lanie sometimes comes with me when I visit church members. She's picked up my habit of praying at the end of these visits. If I ask her what we need to do before we leave she says, "Pray! Pray!" and folds her hands. Lanie also seems to be gathering that we often pray together when we sit down to eat.

So last week I decided that now might be a good time to start praying with her before bed. After we do our nightly reading I ask Lanie what she'd like to pray for. It's adorable. She pauses and thinks really hard and then gleefully responds with the name of somebody she knows. (One night she said, "Baby!" so we thanked God for her baby doll.) I wish I could see inside of her mind when she's thinking to see if she has some reason for naming the people she names or if it's just a random drawing from the names she can say. Lanie is always excited to start praying, though her attention span is pretty short. But that's okay. My prayer attention span isn't always very long, and I've had quite a bit more practice. I don't know that Lanie gets a lot out of prayers yet, but I figure she's forming some understanding. And habits can go a long way in helping us with our spiritual practices. I remember my parents doing nightly devotions with me when I was a couple years older than Lanie is now. Hopefully Tess and I can make that same kind of influence on Lanie. And I could always use more prayer practice myself.

Grace and peace,
BMH

#124 Party Mix

It started simply enough. Tess and I had invited most—if not all—of our seminary friends over to celebrate my 25th birthday. Our apartment wasn't huge. We were mostly going to sit around and talk and snack. Maybe an hour before party time I had a thought. The party needed some background music to add even more life to the atmosphere. So I opened Spotify to make my ultimate playlist. I looked up albums I loved from artists I loved and added only my favorite song from each of those albums. Soon I had 100 songs, more than enough to cover our entire party. Party Mix was born.

It seemed like that would pretty much be the end. After all, I like to listen to albums when I work or when I drive. I enjoy listening to a single artist for a while, and I tend to think of albums almost like stories. I want to hear the whole story, even if some pieces of it are weaker than others. And yet, I understand the appeal of the playlist. You get the best of the best with no filler. Shuffling gets you the (theoretical, at least) randomness of listening to the radio without getting songs you don't like or certain songs too often. And so, without a radio station that I really liked, I found myself turning to Party Mix when I didn't know what album I wanted or when I only needed a few songs at a time.

It eventually grew into something bigger. After about fifteen months, I had a thought: What if I went further and pulled in the best songs off the rest of the albums I loved from the artists I loved? What if I made Party Mix bigger, better, and even more ready to party? I did a deep dive, scouring albums and artists I hadn't thought of the first time around and searching out albums that had come out since I created Party Mix. By the time I resurfaced, Party Mix had swelled to about 200 songs and become Party Mix 2.0.

It didn't stop there. Party Mix became a living, breathing playlist. I relistened to albums and decided there were a handful of songs I liked better than the ones I had originally put on the playlist. I kept on discovering new artists. Old beloved artists put out new albums. Party Mix 2.0 gave way to Party Mix 2.1. I still listen to albums quite a bit when I'm working or playing cards or driving long distances with Tess available to queue up new music from my phone after an album ends. But I find myself being drawn more and more to Party Mix. With well over 200 songs, every listening experience is different, and every song makes me think, "I love this song!" It doesn't get much better than that. Long live Party Mix.

Grace and peace,
BMH