Making The Most Of Every Opportunity

A. One day an atheist was complaining to his Christian friend, “You Christians have your special holidays, such as Christmas and Easter and Jews celebrate their special holidays, such as Passover and Yom Kippur, but we atheists have no recognized special holidays. It’s just not fair!”

1. The Christian friend disagreed saying, “How can you say there is no special holidays for atheists, what about April Fool’s Day? The Bible says, ‘The fool says in his heart there is no God.’” (Ps. 14:1)

2. Ouch! I don’t think that’s the best way to respond to an atheist or to anyone else.

3. Our Scripture Reading says that we need to act wisely toward outsiders and that our speech should always be gracious and be seasoned with salt.

B. Whenever Christmas and Easter roll around, people often say to me “I know this is your busiest time of the year” and I then have the opportunity to explain to them that actually, our church practices a simple, biblical Christianity that doesn’t add religious holidays to our schedule because they are not found in the New Testament, and so the holidays don’t impact my schedule as much as it impacts ministers in denominational churches.

1. I explain to them that we do our best to celebrate Jesus every Sunday of the year, which is what the New Testament reveals that we should do.

C. But where did these religious holidays come from and how should we navigate them as individual followers of Jesus and as a church of Christ – a church that belongs to Jesus?

1. To begin with, let’s consider the fact that we live in the United States of America in the third decade of the 21st century and so our national culture has a yearly calendar that impacts the lives of all Americans.

2. I have a yearly calendar that sits under the glass on my desk that I print each year from a website called timeanddate.com and on that calendar are a list of the holidays and observances.

3. The list includes: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter Sunday, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve.

4. In our understanding and practice of New Testament Christianity, none of those holidays are biblically, authorizied religious holidays, but all of them are in the collective consciousness of the people of our country.

5. Those holidays impact our work and school schedules to one degree or another and so they impact our personal lives.

6. And so, when we gather as a church on Sundays or Wednesdays near those holidays, it makes sense for us to try to make the most of every opportunity to bring spiritual truth and a spiritual focus to whatever is happening in the culture around us.

7. Our teaching and our prayers often include things related to all of these holidays and observances.

a. While people are thinking about the new year, we often talked about it and pray about it.

b. While people are thinking about racial justice around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we often talked about it and pray about it.

c. While people are thinking about those who have died or served for our country’s independence and freedom, we often talk about it and pray about it.

d. While people are thinking about their mothers or fathers on those holidays, we often talk about it and pray about it.

e. While people are thinking about what they are thankful for around Thanksgiving, we often talk about it and pray about it.

f. And while people are thinking about Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ resurrection around those holidays, we often talk about it and pray about it.

8. But even though we might talk about or pray about the things surrounding those holidays, we don’t turn any of them into a religious holiday that must be followed or observed as a faith requirement.

D. Because the Easter holiday is approaching next week, I thought it would be a good time for us to explore the many Easter traditions that have developed in denominational Christianity.

1. Let’s explore when and how these traditions developed.

2. Let’s explore what these traditions mean.

3. And let’s explore the danger that comes with religious traditions.

E. The Easter traditions have created a number of terms to go with the traditions.

1. The terms include: Easter, lent, ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Eastertide.

2. It is important for us to know something about these terms and the practices that go with them.

F. Let’s start with the word Easter.

1. I almost titled this sermon “Easter is Not a Four-Letter Word,” but decided I didn’t want to offend or potentially distract from the important truths of the sermon.