Here. Have some Ponychase on me!
I have a weakness for synth-pop. Also a cool roller coaster video, but don’t watch if you get nauseous at simulations.
The lyrics speak of a desire to be a part of something great.
But to do so, it requires leaving everything else behind.
(Cue infamous, relevant spiritual connection… I’ll try to keep it a little shorter this time, haha.)
This Easter weekend, I’ve been asking people what the cross means for their lives.
And by that, I mean,
What does American organized religion
have to do with
an obscure, politically rebellious Middle-Eastern man from 101-score years ago?
Whatever it means, I’ll tell you what I do know:
Either his death means absolutely nothing to us,
is no more than a historical fact,
affecting our lives no more than George Washington or Atilla the Hun do…
or it is the entire crux of all humanity,
history and pre-history,
ecological order,
human longing and emotion,
the universe,
and everything.
There is no middle ground.
It’s why it boggles my mind how many people go to church only on Easter and Christmas. I would understand if you totally rejected the cross as a fraud and never came. Or if you accepted it as life-changing truth. At least either one of these ways would be consistent. But to be in the middle makes no logical sense at all.
An ordinary man’s death
usually means the end of one life,
not the sudden eternalization of all of them.
An ordinary man’s death
usually means the end of one life,
not the sudden “It’s okay,
I’ll sweep all your sins under the rug”
of a God
who apparently invented
and thus perfected
the concept of justice.
And yet, most of us go to church on this random Sunday in April like it’s nothing.
If you don’t claim to follow Jesus, or especially if you do, I invite you to investigate something:
How the heck is this Middle-Eastern person dying on a cross supposed to affect your life?
As in, according to the Christian worldview,
how are these two things even logically connected?
Why am I making such a bold, universal claim about Jesus?
If you already know, or even if you don’t, I dare you to pose this question to a friend tomorrow if and when you go to a church.
As I said, tomorrow you observe either the most crucial event in all time-space, or just another meaningless cultural tradition.
May the truth be revealed — you just might stumble upon greatness.
But in order to move onto something great,
one must leave mediocrity behind…
“Parade of Youth” by Ponychase
All alone we sit in our homes
Writing music and books while thousands are working
tirelessly so the weak can be free
Oh, to have some real use
Oh, to be, oh, to be something!
Don’t want to give it up now
Don’t want to give it up
No, I won’t
I can’t stop
The muse can bring every word that you write
or you can act like the kids, setting fire to the night
The parade of youth filing down my street
It is passing me, but I am still singing
Listen
Don’t want to give it up now
Don’t want to give it up
No, I won’t
I can’t stop
__
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Interesting thoughts, Meg, as usual. And thought provoking, too. My question has always been how do you respond to people who only come twice a year? I heard one sermon on an Easter Sunday about 3-4 years after I got saved where all the Pastor did was blast people who came that day but otherwise would never set foot in a Church. He said things like “If you really believed in the resurrection of Jesus you would always be here!” Afterwards, a friend of mine said that this particular Pastor was tired of that and wanted to “let them have it.” My thought was “If I had heard this sermon 3-4 years ago, I would have never come back here again.” But it does beg the question, what do you say to these CEO Christians? (Christmas and Easter Only). My thought has always been you have to love on them so much that they want to come back. As the old adage goes, you may be the only Jesus that some people ever meet. If this is your one chance to make an impact on them, we better not waste it. So I think we need to love on them like there’s no tomorrow. Ask their names. Ask if they want to come next week and go to your Sunday School class with you. FCC has it right with no classes on Easter, so we can honestly say “We don’t have class today, but it meets next week at 10:30, and I’ve love to have you come join us.” Sure, probably 90% of the people will either say no or say yes and not come back, but that’s on them. Jesus invited people, wherever they were in life, to come and follow Him. We need to invite people to do the same thing while we have the opportunity, and today is a day to just that.
Doug, I love your comments and insight. You’re absolutely right. Although I still don’t understand the logic behind going to church twice a year, churchgoers can use it as an opportunity either to condemn, or to invite others into something even better than CEO Christianity. Some people probably go because of their families or traditions. They may be totally unaware the church is anything beyond that. But we can show them! Traditions easily lose their meaning, but it doesn’t mean church itself has lost its meaning… and it doesn’t mean you can’t be a driving force in bringing meaning back to the tradition of going to church. It may just be the way you help Jesus restore ultimate meaning to someone’s whole life.
We were made with a purpose in mind by an intentional God. God can take even our own illogic, hypocrisy, and aimless wandering, bring it under His sovereign control, and use it to help us to know Him better. (And isn’t that the purpose of life anyway?) In the same way, we can choose to use what seems nonsensical in others’ lives to point them to truth, purpose, direction, and relationship with Jesus who loved them and rescued them.
Thanks again Doug 🙂