Why I haven't gone to church this Easter

While churches every where expand with the holiday Christians, we - who go most Sundays - haven't gone once.

Why?

Firstly, I assure you it's not some deliberate boycott. We're not making a protest.

But to me it just doesn't seem that important to make sure I get myself to a church building at Easter.

I spend every day of my life thinking of Jesus' sacrifice for us - my blog is named after it - and every day learning what it means to live because of his resurrection.

I've met together with friends. We've broken bread (it was garlic bread) and there was even red wine.

Isn't that what being a Christian is about? Living daily in the amazing love God shows for us? And sharing that love with others?

I'm not saying don't go to church at Easter. It's good to be reminded of the story in full.

But I don't think not going this year makes me a bad Christian. Forgoing the tradition doesn't make it less real to me.

What do you think? Does it matter if you go to any church services over Easter?

Love with action

I remember watching a man on TV speak about the organisation he founded, a non-profit organisation, caring for thousands of orphaned children around the world. I don't remember the name of the man or the name of the organisation, but what he said stuck with me.

He spoke about a child who died in one of the homes they supported. The organisation provided extra money to the orphanage to cover the funeral expenses and more. And yet four days later the child lay, dead, on a table. No one buried him.

It wasn't their responsibility, they said.

Sometimes it's not a lack of money that's the problem. It's the attitudes. No one buried the child because a dead child wasn't important to them.

The way to change the world doesn't lie simply in the redistribution of wealth. It starts with us; it starts with our hearts.

That's why it's so heart breaking when people have the attitude that one person can't make a difference, so why bother trying. Because it's not the money they don't donate that's the problem, it's that pervasive apathy.

Change the attitudes, and the money follows. Change our viewpoint, and the redistribution of wealth and resources will naturally follow.

What's your viewpoint? What's your attitude? It starts at home - how you treat the people around you, how you view the sick, the weak, the struggling, the lost. If you live all year thinking only of your own happiness and comfort and then send off a cheque to some far away place and think you've done your 'bit' - think again.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18


Make Lent about more than giving up chocolate. Make Easter about more than eating chocolate. Make your life about more than your own happiness.


Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:1-4


If the love of God means anything to you, what are you going to do about it?

What are we fasting for?

For anyone observing Lent in any way, chances are you have given up something for this 40 days. One of the most common ones I hear is chocolate. "I'm giving up chocolate for Lent".

Growing up I either I've forgotten, I was oblivious at the time, or the churches I went to didn't observe or promote Lent. Whatever the reason, it was only last year that I actually talked to people who were giving something up and found out what this Lent thing was.

My first thought was, what exactly has giving up chocolate got to do with anything?  

But that got me thinking about fasting in general. What is it for? Why do we do it? And how are you meant to do it right? 

Is it just denying yourself something to practise piety and self control? Is it a trade  - "God, I'll give you this time of fasting, and you give me what I'm praying for. Deal?"

I think not.

The Bible puts it rather well, as it tends to do:

Isaiah 58:6-7

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Ah, so that's the reason. But what's chocolate got to do with it?

I think if you give something up on Lent, it's got to be about more than yourself. You could give up food entirely for the whole 40 days, but if you turned your back on your neighbours, neglected your family, focussed entirely on yourself - what is it for?

Fasting is not for your gain. That should be obvious, since it's about giving something up - but ironically many people think of it in terms of what they can get.

Give up something like chocolate for Lent if you want, but more importantly, give up something of yourself. Put aside your own needs for the good of others. For the glory of God.

"...then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” 

            The mouth of the LORD has spoken.       (Isaiah 58:14)

Lose Everything to Gain Everything

This morning I sat down to eat breakfast, and the TV was on. One of the first things I saw was a noisy advert for an Easter Sale. It interrupted my calm morning, and reminded me that even over Easter nothing shuts down.

We can't bear to go without anything for even a few days. It made me wonder, What would we do if the whole country shut down for the whole five days? (ANZAC day is the extra day for non-Australian readers.) It made think that we would probably rely a lot more on each other - run out of something, maybe we would have to go talk to a neighbour, or pool our resources with a group of friends. We would probably focus more on people, on our family and friends, rather than running off to a "Once In A Lifetime SALE" that happens every other month anyway.

If we stripped away everything we normally rely on to keep us safe, and fed and entertained, what would we turn to?

I know the answer is God.

In the Western world I think it is harder for us to really get the concept of fully relying on God. Because we don't need to. We are prosperous and secure and so take it for granted that is actually God that gives us all that. What will it take to remind us that God is everything - that at the end of the day he is all we have, and all we need?

I think we may have seen a bit of what it takes. Far from just a short shut down on a public holiday, all over the world people are experiencing events that strip them of their usual lives, their possessions, the things they normally rely on. In floods and earth quakes and tsunamis, all our control is taken away.

I don't think God is causing these things to happen, as some sort of punishment. But it's an idea that we struggle with - Why does God let bad things happen?

I don't have the answer to that, but I do know that God works all things together for good. If out of this even a few people rediscover the God that supplies all their needs, then there is good. What is it that really matters? Our earthly temporary lives and comfort, or our eternal lives with God?

We don't need to "mourn like those who have no hope". (1 Thessalonians 4:13) We have eternity - anything else means very little in comparison. And truthfully, a lot of us will find this Easter that our greatest hardship is worrying that we will run out of milk and the shops won't be open.

Don't wait for a natural disaster to strip you of everything, to realise the EVERYTHING that you really need.

"If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it." Matthew 16:25