How much reverence on Easter?

Ward Voorhees is a pillar of First Lutheran Church if anyone is. Of course this church is navigating rough waters now. We might even describe it as a dead church or former church. And I stress that would not be a stretch. 

Many of us gravitate to church for Easter Sunday. What kind of holiday is this? Well it is fundamentally a religious holiday. "Good Friday" precedes it? How good can we really feel with such a focus on the literal torturing-to-death of Jesus Christ? 

We are in fact encouraged to feel "down" for Good Friday, then the idea is to do a complete reversal for Easter Sunday. The behavior is prompted by the belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and God would forgive everyone of their sins if they would accept Jesus as their Savior. Oh c'mon, isn't this whole story a little fantastical? Couldn't all this have been faked? People with political or philosophical motivations can go to great lengths. 

OK so how do I assess the whole fantastical story? Really truly I would like to think it's true. My mother would want me to be so disposed. So at times I close my eyes and really truly try to realize that it is true and I am "saved." But if I tell people I have chosen this commitment, it would not seem right because doubt seems inevitable. 

If I were on my death bed tomorrow I really truly would try to believe. But I really can't help but believe it's a put-on. A canard? 

Christmas? We don't even know the date on which Christ was born. However, I have always found the manger story so endearing. So I'd try to believe it anyway. I wrote a song about the Little Drummer Boy as the story was told in the 1960s TV stop-motion special. The Little Drummer Boy is not in the Bible. 

The Christmas story is charming. I'd find Easter and the lead-up to it horrifying. Do you want to see an increasing number of young people leave the Christian faith? Just keep hammering away on the godawful physical abuse of Jesus Christ leading up to his being nailed on the cross. I do not recall so much violent imagery from when I was growing up at First Lutheran. The point about Christ's death was made in a more general way. "Hew died for our sins" 

What of all the human beings that existed in the time before that? They were guaranteed to spend eternity in hell? Well, were they? 

 

Dark cloud 

Today the Christian faith in America is under a terrible cloud because of how Donald Trump hovers over us every day. Why do we live with this? Why do we accept a congressperson out here in western Minnesota who talks and acts like an extension of Donald Trump? And she's following the marching orders on the military conflict in Iran. 

Now Trump's unbalanced nature is having a terrible effect on the whole world. A destabilizing effect. It's done to help Israel? The Jews of Israel do not even accept Christ as their Savior. So then, why do all the Jerry Falwell disciples across America sing Israel's praises? I guess it's "fulfillment of Biblical prophecy." 

Interpreting this thick tome called the Bible can go in seemingly endless directions, n'est-ce pas? I remember a radio host who said he wouldn't even keep a caller on the line once this individual quoted the Bible. 

Maybe this matter would not be so important if American "evangelical" Christianity was not now such a menace on the world stage. It is part and parcel with this 80-year-old man named Trump. And why oh why have not the intelligent people of America risen up to try to end this? To end this abomination? 

Soon we'll feel another big blast of inflation. Are you really truly ready? Trump says the Federal government exists only for "national defense" which can be interpreted as war and aggression. Look at how he has spoken about Greenland, Canada and Cuba. It mirrors perfectly what Germany once projected before it had to be put down violently. 

We are sitting here like sheep as this happens. There are others like myself trying to ring a firebell in the night. But it is so futile. 

 

Not sensitive 

How do you think the non-Christians of Morris feel when they try to go to Willie's today (Sunday) and find that it is closed? Closed for Easter. Is this the last year we'll see this? Willie's used to be closed every Sunday. You might say those were Norman Rockwell times. Those times have faded into oblivion. And it's for the better. 

I'd have a chocolate bunny for Easter but I've had some issues with diabetes. Right now I believe I am "pre-diabetic." 

Ward Voorhees of First Lutheran Church has certainly lived a blessed life getting to age 90. His First Lutheran Church - my former church - now only meets in its own building every other week. I cannot in good conscience continue to belong. I have seen the gradual erosion of FLC over the last few years. I wasn't sure it would come to this. 

The vote on gay ordination absolutely supplied the dagger. Truman Carlson was mad when he left FLC. Carlson was an iconic resident of Morris if anyone was. 

I can find a very nice ELCA church service to take in every week from Cincinnati now. "Lutheran Church of the Resurrection." 

The sun is out as I complete the first draft of this blog post. I should proclaim that it looks like a joyous Easter. I cannot adopt any such sentiment. Donald Trump is a menace for the whole world right now. Jerry Falwell began laying the building blocks for this. Most of the Stevens County churches follow right along. The Pope resists Trump in the same spirit that I do. Can Catholicism in America survive?

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com