From past experiences I have discovered that on certain Christian holidays that people will drop their typical greetings for something more appropriate to the occasion. Today instead of saying "Good Morning", the greeting was " He is Risen!".
There were a few familiar things I recognized. The drape of white fabric laying on the cross, and an extensive decoration all around the room made with brightly coloured spring flowers. I am gonna be honest, the first half of the service was like having church in a kindergarten class. SO MANY KIDS!!! Thankfully they were smart enough to give the coloring pages to keep them busy until they were dismissed for their Sunday school.
The prayer requests this morning were definitely interesting. One of them Involved the announcement of a new mandarin speaking church that is being built in the far north end of the city. It had become noticeable to the Chinese community in the city, that there is little to no options for mandarin speaking people to attend church in their language. Edmonton has many people of Chinese heritage but almost all of the well established ones are Cantonese speaking, especially that of the older generation. Therefore, three Chinese churches in the city are working together to make this new church happen. (Ps. They still don't have a pastor, so if you know a pastor that speaks mandarin, let them know!)
Another prayer of for something a bit more concerning to my heart. there was about 50-75 people in the room including the kids, and it was asked that we all say a prayer for the 4 men that have lost their jobs (now down to 3). Most of which I can only guess are fathers with young kids. Having a Dad that has lost his job seams somewhat meaningless to a child cause you are just so far in your own happy bubble, that you are just dam clueless to the world around you. However after that child grows up, and realizes the weight of the world and looks back on what what happened to their parent, lets just say it is just short of heart wrenching. Been there, done that unfortunately.
there was a very cool video clip shown. The pastor was nice enough to share it with me for my bog, thanks again! :)
The kids also went up to the church and did a little "song with actions" thing. The song had to do with telling the people that Christ is risen and he is alive. All along with some James Bond background music and some robotic dance moves. I know sometimes people put in the extra effort to make something cool and modern, and then there are times when you just get weird messed up stuff.
Yep... this sums it up well I think.
The actual sermon however was much different.
The pastor noted something that has been mentioned a lot lately. Easter is underrated too much. Especially by Christians. I agree with his statement that it should be one of the most, if not the most important holiday we have. He made a very good point when he said out, that we will set aside our entire regular routine for an entire month, in preparation for Christmas. But we will maybe take a day to prep for Easter.
"Somehow eggs and bunnies ended up in the mix, I don't know!"
I have been looking into traveling lately and i read an article called "46 Reasons You Should Never Leave Amsterdam". And i noticed a quote that says "one of the best parts about Amsterdam is that it knows what it is." I am happy to report this was also true of this church service. This pastor knew what he was dealing with. Easter Sunday service. Not only a religiously significant day, but also one of those days in which non-believers are forced and obligated to come to church by grandma. You know me. I tell it like it is. So as far as my impression goes, the pastor took this opportunity to make believers out of the critics, skeptics and agnostics. Good luck.
First he took some time to explain some of the significance of Christs actions. He point to the fact that Christ was the king that died for us. Which is not that big until you put it in perspective. Back in the day when the kingdom was in danger the king was the last person to risk his life. All of his people would go before him and risk death to protect the king. Because if the king dies in battle, instantly everything is lost. Check-mate and game over for everything. So the idea that Christ was a king that would go out to battle alone, and willingly die, to save the lives of all his subjects was just short of revolutionary. BEST KING EVER!
Another subject was Christ army of angles. Apparently it is written in the bible somewhere that Christ had legions upon legions of angles ready at his command to same him from his suffering. He had every opportunity to get out of his humiliation, torture and slow and brutal death. But he took all of it for days on end because his only thought was that he needed to see this thru for all of us.
Since Jesus rose from his tomb his followers were feeling the heat. The empire was freaking out because there were rumors that this guy rose from the dead. But the only way to prove he is still dead is with his body. Body is currently missing from the tomb. Who are you gonna blame first? How about his 12 actually 11 disciples. Thanks a lot Judas. So Christ now in his risen state appears to the disciples and speaks to them. But Thomas is not in the room. So the disciples run to go tell him what happened. And in true Thomas style, he give them the old "I'll believe it when I see it!!!" He even went on to say that he will only believe them if Christ himself comes to him and allows him to put his finger thru the wound that priced a hole directly thru the center of his hand.
Ps. They don't call this guy "Doubting Thomas" for nothing.
Needless to say when Christ appeared to him 8 days latter and was like; check out my hand, not to mention my side where the spear got me! Thomas was eating his words and apologizing profusely.
He noted the fact that Christians are often mocked and criticized that they believe in fairy tails and nonsense. His argument is that Christ did very much so exist, not only in the bible but also in historical documents outside the bible. He references letters sent by a Turkish governor to Roam discussing Jesus. There was a Greek philosopher called Josephus who spoke of him. And the Jewish Talmud calls him a sorcerer. But the point is that he is in there.
Despite the fact that I have many non-christian friends in my life, most of them agree with me that Christ was a real person and did exist. We don't agree on much else. But his existence is so well documented it is impossible to deny. Even my friend that as recently given up on Christianity and become a raging agnostic has said to me; "Jesus did exist. I will give you that. To deny that, you pretty much have to be an idiot."
The most interesting thing that I learned this day was all around one word. "Finished". As some of you may know, In his last hour before death Christ's last words were "It is finished!" Which seams like a pretty obvious and final statement considering everything that has just happened to the guy. But there is something here us English speakers are missing. This part of the bible was originally written in Greek. In English we have three lingual tenses we use; past present, future. ex. ride, riding, ridden. The Greeks are a lot fancier then us. They have not 3 not 4 not 5 but EIGHT different tenses used in their language. The tense used on the word "Finished" is a perfect tense. Meaning that that word was acted in the now, but also carries on with eternal consequences. His blood washed clean all the people that are here now, are now past, and are yet to be born. Everyone is covered. Finished. Forever.
"Believe and confess Jesus to be the savior and you are saved!"
However by the end I was really starting to fell sorry for this pastor. He repeatedly said "I need you to believe!" But The sad part is that I even felt detracted from believing at this moment. In-fact I can say I have not believed so little in a long time. It was like watching baseball with the batter giving 110% to hit the ball and just missing it. Over and over and over. Just brutal.
Not only that , I was actually kind of worried for him. There was this one guy in the crowd who I could tell was likely not a regular church goer, or believer in God. And it was clear to see he was pissed. You could just tell that everything the pastor was saying was just getting this guy more and more irked. You could just see the look on this guys face and he looked like he wanted to go up there and punch out the pastor. Thankfully it did not come to that.
Right after that the service ended and I was packing up. Then, a woman in her forty's who was in a seating area to my right, had suddenly moved to the front of the room wile I was not looking, I had examined this lady earlier. She appeared to have friends and family with her, she was wearing a wedding ring and dressed very nicely. I would maybe not have taken so much note of her if was not for her obvious medical condition.
I am no doctor but if I had to make a guess I would say this is Warts, but not just a few. Every free inch of her skin was almost covered in warts. Face, Hands, Arms just everything! This poor lady looked like she could have been painted into one of the pictures of Christ healing some one with some plaguing disease. I know what it is like to have warts. They are not fun. You also feel some what helpless to them, because there is little you can do to fight them sometimes. But the worst part is they make you feel ugly. This is not an ugly that make-up and hair dye can fix. You feel ugly in you heart and soul. You know you have them growing on you, you know people are going to ask, and it feels impossible to get away. It can be brutal. I still have the scar from when they had to surgically remove mine. My left elbow has never been the same since.
And yet now before me, at the front of the room, I see this lady, knelt down on the steps at the front of the alter with her head down. I did not get close enough to tell but I suspect that she was sobbing. The rest of the room packed up and moved on, but she stayed there. Another lady came and sat beside her to show support, and giver her comfort. This in my mind is an example of a person that needs God. That being said, we all need God. But this lady clearly needs him. Not for the purpose of handing out some miracle cure to fix her skin condition. I am sure that would be great, but that's not what I am taking about here. I don't know what she was praying for but I suspect it might be that she is seeking gods, love. The kind of love that can help her deal with all the weird looks she gets when she is out grocery shopping. The kind of love that can help her hold her head high, and prevent her from feeling inferior to the other ladies sitting beside her on the buss. The kind of love that will make the people around her act with kindness and compassion. Or maybe she just wants to be able to wake up in the morning and feel beautiful knowing that regardless of her skin, that she is loved unconditionally. God is good at that.
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