High Festivals, for example…. Cultural Christmas seems to sit anticipationally adjacent to the religious season; Easter is more about a day than a season with a focus more on egg hunts than empty tombs; and Pentecost isn’t really even known outside the church!
When I was out this week, I saw a prime example of how culture (specifically capitalist culture) and church-land can be very different places – and how there seems to be minimal effort or interest in bridging those gaps.
A store was clearing out their “Easter Advent Calendar”… complete with a 3D tree to decorate. (Surely something cartoon couldn't be aspiring to the solemnity of Lent, this must be just an effort to consider a countdown to a special day? Was the enclosed "Letter to the Easter Bunny" a nod to secular Christmas postal efforts?)
Admittedly, while I was still rather tired after the exuberance of our resurrection celebrations, to say that this product confused me would be an understatement!
Yet: rather than spend much time or effort trying to pull apart the conflated seasons, or categorise the plethora of reasons for my consternation, it made me wonder: how can we better communicate the truth of our high festivals, the tenets of our faith, the basics of why we do what we do?
The opportunity is there, and if we do not speak up, capitalism will – evidently!
And I’m not suggesting we can override capitalism, nor that we should rail against such creative expressions of seasonal sales… but perhaps we can consider how we might form and foster relationships with the people in our community, so that the most basic of our celebrations are understood?
I am under no delusions that we can – or should – ban the bunny; but I would hope that we could boldly share with at least one person the true joy of what Easter really is – and Christmas when that season comes – and all the other beautiful things that make church the blessing that it is.
For if we don’t communicate the truth of the Good News of God, who knows how far off the creative marketing teams will take it.
Yet: rather than spend much time or effort trying to pull apart the conflated seasons, or categorise the plethora of reasons for my consternation, it made me wonder: how can we better communicate the truth of our high festivals, the tenets of our faith, the basics of why we do what we do?
The opportunity is there, and if we do not speak up, capitalism will – evidently!
And I’m not suggesting we can override capitalism, nor that we should rail against such creative expressions of seasonal sales… but perhaps we can consider how we might form and foster relationships with the people in our community, so that the most basic of our celebrations are understood?
I am under no delusions that we can – or should – ban the bunny; but I would hope that we could boldly share with at least one person the true joy of what Easter really is – and Christmas when that season comes – and all the other beautiful things that make church the blessing that it is.
For if we don’t communicate the truth of the Good News of God, who knows how far off the creative marketing teams will take it.
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