# 52 “Easters” in the year.



## NaphtaliPress (Mar 31, 2013)

This formed out of the earlier thread and I Facebook'd it but thought I'd post it here as well though somewhat repeating things.
At some point man (whose mind is an idol factory to use Calvin’s term) in his “wisdom” thought there should be more holy days than God had provided his NT church. The pretense of Easter is to commemorate Christ’s resurrection from death, yet that is why Christians meet on “Sundays” for worship. So in a real sense, while one might (incorrectly) argue that the other events of Christ’s life needed some “equal time” and so a justification for those pretended holy days which gave rise to what is often termed the “christian calendar”; this points out even more clearly the will worship and even idolatry in co-opting a Lord’s day that already exists for the very reason of Christ’s resurrection, for man’s imagined need to some way underscore that event. The Lord already underscored that event in providing Christians 52 days a year on which to gather for and to worship Him by means He has appointed.


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## Elizabeth (Mar 31, 2013)

Just to be clear: it is not wrong to celebrate the Lord's resurrection this Sunday any more than it is any other Sunday, correct? I certainly agree we should celebrate it every single Sunday of the year.

Or, put another way, should we have avoided singing 'The strife is o'er' _today_, but t'would be all right to sing _next_ Lord's day(obviously, we are not EP)?

I guess what I am trying to get at is this: since man has made an idol of his holy days, should we particularly be careful to avoid references on those days to the things they purport to 'celebrate'? Talk about the empty tomb always except NOT on so-called 'easter'. 

Does that not make another sort of 'negative' idol? Kind of an anti-holy-day holy day.

Just trying to understand how we don't make an idol out of our 'not making idols', because Calvin was surely right: our hearts are idol factories. And we can sometimes couch these things very cleverly and piously. I find I have to be very careful in this, because I tend to be a very severe and 'puritanical'(not in a good sense) old woman.


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## NaphtaliPress (Mar 31, 2013)

I'm saying we ignore the church calendar and we don't take cues from practices Reformed churches either cast out as a relics of idolatry or wished they had. Casual references or sermon topics should be handled wisely keeping in mind the idolatry and abuses that need reforming or testifying against, but I think it would not be wise for a pastor who always preaches lecto continua, if in Luke, he were to skip Luke 2 if that day happened to be December 25. That one may become prideful and make one's "purity" an idol is not a reason against pulling down idols; just reason to be be watchful of where our heart is.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Mar 31, 2013)

I actually found myself in that exact situation today. I preach _Lecto Continua_ and have been preaching through the Gospel of John in morning worship since January of 2012. Today by God's providence I found myself in John 19:1-16 and next week I'll be preaching on John 19:17-24. Our morning worship service this morning looked the same as it did on October 23rd, that is Christ and His Cross were front and center like they are every week.


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## MarieP (Mar 31, 2013)

I find it ironic that many Christians and churches treat the Resurrection as a secondary issue and yet it is the Resurrection that God chose to have His church commemorate week by week. As central as the cross is to our faith, it's not Friday that we meet upon! There is no Gospel without either the cross or the empty tomb!

My pastor just wrote a blog post on this subject. Note: I have a friend who took this to be against those who explicitly focus on the Resurrection on Easter, but I really don't think it's a call to less, but a call to more! After all, we ourselves just had a concentrated focus on the Resurrection today.



> Time to Celebrate!
> By Jim Savastio
> 
> If all goes well, I will be celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus again this coming Lord’s Day. I was converted in late 1977 and so this year will mark roughly the 1,845th time that I have celebrated this event. Every one of them has been sweet, if not always memorable. Before you chide me for my math, let me remind you that the Bible nowhere commands us to set aside one day a year for the celebration of our Lord’s triumph over the grave. No, rather, it exhorts us to remember this event every single week! Fifty two times a year! Fifty-two Easters! Fifty two vivid remembrances and celebrations that death could not hold Him. Fifty two reminders that Christ has risen and ascended and sent the Spirit (that was a Lord’s day too)!
> ...


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