Attended an Easter vigil on Saturday night. For those of you who have never been to one of these, I would say that it would be most agreeable or detestable to you. I will let you find out.
I will not go into the entire service as of right now as I have not processed it totally. The whole service was building up to the celebration of Christ rising from the dead and grave and therefore defeating sin and death and making way for mankind to be re united with God. Amen
So as the service went through it's paces, it culminated to a point where the Rector announced the resurrection of Jesus and the congregation, the priest, the pastoral members, the choir, the band and all creatures great and small went bonkers for I do not know how long. We screamed, yelled, rang bells, banged pots and pans, jumped, danced and just participated in general revelry in celebration.
As I was I yelling and ringing my bell, I felt an almost undeniable desire to throw my bell at someone and run around as I tore my shirt off, just go classically crazy. I did not do any of those things but pondered the feelings later.
How fine a line separates human emotional reactions. The same fire that fuels group worship of our Creator's victory is perhaps the same that fuels the riots and plundering of massive mobs. Before you call my pastor and get my kicked out, I am not saying God causes riots but that we humans have very basic emotions and very few reactions. Now how this come to fruition and what they cause or what outcomes results from them are very different. But that is the point is it not? If you are not a Christian, you will find my next statements very silly I shouldn't wonder.
We are fallen and all that grows inside of us and comes forth from our mouth, heart, mind and such is perverted. I use this word not JUST as sexual perversion but as meaning using something or doing something with same actions or same starting point but with an evil desire or outcome, ie Crusades, Spanish inquisition, abortion clinic bombings, early European missionaries murdering native Americans, Salem Witch Trials, almost every idea of sex in our culture, the use/love/desire/abuse of money...you get my point. Everything we humans do that is awful (which is mostly everything we do) could be and once was good. Adam and Eve were once perfect. They had our emotions, they had our desires and they acted as such BUT they were not fallen. They were Uber Man and Uber Woman. Nothing Man does can be correct without Christ providing the Grace to correct it. Our line is bent. Even if we start at point A headed towards perfection, the most minuscule of deviation will eventually result in out line being so far off perfection that we will no longer be able to see the True Line.
The same emotional starting point I had whilst celebrating and praising Christ late Saturday night, without Grace could easily be turned into a self righteous riot that could result in any sort of religious persecution. I think I understand what happened at Salem and why thousands of Christians and Muslims killed and are killing each other. This is why I am also able to say how terribly wrong they are as well. Understanding is not the same as condoning. I just wonder how much more effective we would be in showing truth is we understood how close we all were and but for the Grace of God how far we would all be from the True Line.
Anyways, I am done rambling. But I will leave you with this. I think a little personal riot on your own is not too bad. This world is ran by the enemy so let us riot continually but just in track with Christ. I can't tell you how each person gets on the Line but that there is a Line and we cannot be on it without Christ as The Line is Christ. Oh boy metaphysics!
I will not go into the entire service as of right now as I have not processed it totally. The whole service was building up to the celebration of Christ rising from the dead and grave and therefore defeating sin and death and making way for mankind to be re united with God. Amen
So as the service went through it's paces, it culminated to a point where the Rector announced the resurrection of Jesus and the congregation, the priest, the pastoral members, the choir, the band and all creatures great and small went bonkers for I do not know how long. We screamed, yelled, rang bells, banged pots and pans, jumped, danced and just participated in general revelry in celebration.
As I was I yelling and ringing my bell, I felt an almost undeniable desire to throw my bell at someone and run around as I tore my shirt off, just go classically crazy. I did not do any of those things but pondered the feelings later.
How fine a line separates human emotional reactions. The same fire that fuels group worship of our Creator's victory is perhaps the same that fuels the riots and plundering of massive mobs. Before you call my pastor and get my kicked out, I am not saying God causes riots but that we humans have very basic emotions and very few reactions. Now how this come to fruition and what they cause or what outcomes results from them are very different. But that is the point is it not? If you are not a Christian, you will find my next statements very silly I shouldn't wonder.
We are fallen and all that grows inside of us and comes forth from our mouth, heart, mind and such is perverted. I use this word not JUST as sexual perversion but as meaning using something or doing something with same actions or same starting point but with an evil desire or outcome, ie Crusades, Spanish inquisition, abortion clinic bombings, early European missionaries murdering native Americans, Salem Witch Trials, almost every idea of sex in our culture, the use/love/desire/abuse of money...you get my point. Everything we humans do that is awful (which is mostly everything we do) could be and once was good. Adam and Eve were once perfect. They had our emotions, they had our desires and they acted as such BUT they were not fallen. They were Uber Man and Uber Woman. Nothing Man does can be correct without Christ providing the Grace to correct it. Our line is bent. Even if we start at point A headed towards perfection, the most minuscule of deviation will eventually result in out line being so far off perfection that we will no longer be able to see the True Line.
The same emotional starting point I had whilst celebrating and praising Christ late Saturday night, without Grace could easily be turned into a self righteous riot that could result in any sort of religious persecution. I think I understand what happened at Salem and why thousands of Christians and Muslims killed and are killing each other. This is why I am also able to say how terribly wrong they are as well. Understanding is not the same as condoning. I just wonder how much more effective we would be in showing truth is we understood how close we all were and but for the Grace of God how far we would all be from the True Line.
Anyways, I am done rambling. But I will leave you with this. I think a little personal riot on your own is not too bad. This world is ran by the enemy so let us riot continually but just in track with Christ. I can't tell you how each person gets on the Line but that there is a Line and we cannot be on it without Christ as The Line is Christ. Oh boy metaphysics!
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