Browsing Tag

escape

Christianity

The Amazonification of Christianity

Amazon announced a new product and service to their line-up: Amazon Key. Amazon describes their new product as the way to, “get your Amazon packages securely delivered just inside your front door. Plus, grant access to the people you trust, like your family, friends, dog walker, or house cleaner.” This is one of many products that have taken over our lives by Amazon or also known as the Amazonification of retail… and life.

Amazon has started putting large retailers out of business. With their free two-day delivery with Amazon Prime, tablets that push notifications of sales, Echo devices that can order Amazon products, and other devices that can order via their website, Amazon has put their delivery method in the hands and heads of people around the world. Amazon has created a virtual e-commerce ecosystem that we can’t escape. Now, Amazon is testing drones to deliver products faster. Amazon not only sells products but now services of professional cleaning, installation, plumbing and more on their website.

This is a takeover of Amazon’s brand force. It’s the Amazonification of life: a total and complete delivery system of goods, services, and information. Amazon has disrupted the way people get their “stuff”.

Amazon’s virtual staying power taps into something that is happening in every facet of our lives: virtual delivery and engagement of life… including our faith.  Amazon shows us how Christianity has been disrupted by factors and forces of our technological and mobile connected world.

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blog, Good Friday, Holy Week

How to have a ‘good’ Good Friday

How can Good Friday be good? Good Friday is the day that Christians all around the world remember the suffering of Jesus Christ on a cross.

Depictions of Jesus Christ’s suffering are immortalized within our cultural framework because of such movies as The Passion of the Christ. However, we are not meant to wallow or suffer in the grief of Jesus with torment and pain.

On this day of sadness, we wonder: what is so good about this phrase Good Friday?  There is no clear answer, but the word “good” and “God” were mixed together in the English speaking world.  For instance, the surname “Goodspeed” derives from “Godspeed”, which comes from the expression “God speed (with you)”  The expression, “good bye” came from the phase, “God be with ye (you). 

Despite the origins of the phases, we don’t really feel “good” on Good Friday.

No matter what the origins of the phase, we cannot escape our feelings.  Are we meant to feel guilty and depressed on Good Friday? We don’t feel “good” about Christ suffering.  Are we meant to feel the pressure to be grateful of Jesus’ torment? 

No! We must acknowledge our feelings of grief and loss regarding Jesus’ suffering on Good Friday.  We cannot deny these feelings, nor should we. The stages of grief are real for us as they were for Jesus and his disciples:

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Halloween, new

7 Reasons why a Christian can celebrate (and remake) Halloween


Can there be a Christian Halloween? Can a Christian celebrate Halloween, which honors ghouls, demons, ghosts, and everything that goes bump in the night dangerous or even evil?

Somewhere, in the halls of history, Halloween or All Hallows Eve, got hijacked.  What started as a day to prepare for All Saints’ Day (November 1st), Halloween became a spooky, evil, and candy filled observance.  The term “Halloween” from its beginnings, had nothing to do with any pagan or evil beliefs.  The Christian festival All Hallows Eve morphed into our current term Hallowe’en.

The key in understanding of the origins of the term Halloween comes from the sense of what is “hallowed” or “holy”.  In the Lord’s Prayer, Christians pray, “Our Father, in heaven, hallowed be your name…”  In the fourth century, John Chrysostom tells us that the Eastern church celebrated a festival in honor of all saints who died. In the seventh and eighth centuries, Christians celebrated “All Saints’ Day” formally.

How did Halloween become associated with evil spirits?  When we look at history we discover:

More than a thousand years ago Christians confronted pagan rites appeasing the lord of death and evil spirits… the druids, in what is now Britain and France, observed the end of summer with sacrifices to the gods. It was the beginning of the Celtic year, and they believed Samhain, the lord of death, sent evil spirits abroad to attack humans, who could escape only by assuming disguises and looking like evil spirits themselves. The waning of the sun and the approach of dark winter made the evil spirits rejoice and play nasty tricks.

If the Christian observance of Halloween began with a religious focus, how can we reclaim and celebrate Halloween from its current feared status?  Here are 7 ways Christians can take back Halloween:

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God

Escapism

When I was child, I would look up in the sky and wonder if clouds tasted like cotton candy. I know it’s weird, but what else is there to do when you are kid? I hoped that someday I will be able to get up in the sky, away from everyone else, and try to taste the clouds. I would also dream about flying and sky diving out of a plane. I have not yet been sky diving (I think the church would take an insurance policy out on me if I did, just kidding.) but I think it would be pretty sweet to venture through the sky and the clouds.

So many people want to escape things.  That’s why we have people like Jimmy Buffett, who has made a career of “escapism” through food, music, and concerts. Or, skydiving is a way to get a thrill. We are always looking at the next bigger and better thing down the road to get us “away” from what is going on around us. We all need a vacation, don’t get me wrong, but society is all about escaping from aging, relationships, responsibility, debt, or even helping others.

The day that Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples were left staring up in the clouds. Two angels asked, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand look up toward heaven?” (Acts 1:11) As I read this, I thought that it is almost if the two angels knew that the disciples were looking up into heaven wanting to escape just like Jesus did. The truth is, Jesus did not escape… he ascended to the glory of God. His earthly work was done. These two angels were wondering why the disciples were staring up in heaven. They got work to do!  The Holy Spirit is coming!  The Kingdom of God is at hand. There are people out there who need to hear about Christ. The disciples were looking up wishing that they too could get away, but God had something else in mind.  The the Holy Spirit was coming on the Day of Pentecost. People were going to hear about Jesus and God needed individuals to tell the story.  The disciples were needed for something greater.

We as God’s people are called to join together, not escape one another. What is God calling me for? What am I trying to escape from? Why am I trying to escape? What do I need to do in order to move on?

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