We are now in the Lenten season on the Christian calendar,
the 40 days leading up to Easter. When I was teaching, I found myself surprised
every time a student asked what religion has to do with Easter, and other areas
of Christianity that are also cultural heritage. We have lost the Christian
meaning but kept the cultural celebrations. Christ on the cross dying for the
sins of all humankind and then rising
from the dead – very few outside churches have heard the original story – but
everyone knows about egg baskets and Easter bunnies. In a Hallmark store one
time, buying Easter cards, I heard a woman say to her friend, “the Christians
are even trying to take over Easter.” Mind you, I have no problem with Easter
bunnies, or Santa Clause for that matter. I do still rattle when people don’t
know the difference – or even that there is something different to be known.
In Deuteronomy Moses exhorts the people of Israel to teach
and remind their children the why’s of their religion, Judaism. He reminds them
that their children were not there when God gave Egypt great signs, brought the
nation of Israel out of Egypt and helped them through the Red Sea. It had been
40+ years since then. The children might even have been there at Mt. Sinai when
the law was given, but many would not remember the experience. So Moses warns
the people to teach their children about God and their relationship to Him. He
compels them to tell the stories and give their children all the memories. In
doing so, they could make decisions for themselves based on something.
I had a student once who was frustrated with her parents for
not giving her something to go on regarding religion. She knew her grandparents
on one side had been Christian, but she knew nothing about Christianity. Her
parents didn’t want to persuade her one way or another – it was her decision to
make. But she asked how can you make a decision among things you know nothing
about? How can you make an informed decision without information?
Other friends were surprised when their teenage kids began
asking questions about Easter and its meaning, other than baskets and bunnies.
Was there another reason? They wondered how their children could not know. Later
these same kids, now adults, told their parents they’d had to go elsewhere to
find out. “You never taught us.” The parents thought they had, they celebrated
Easter and Christmas, and assumed their kids knew the deeper, Christian
meaning. For the kids, however, there was no deeper meaning or reason beyond
Santa and Easter bunnies.
I was raised in a Christian home. My parents and their
parents had been raised in Christianity also. My paternal grandfather was a
pastor. My maternal grandfather, though raised in Christianity, had rebelled
against it until my mom was in late elementary/Jr High. But once into
Christianity, that grandfather was as much, if not more, gung ho than my pastor
grandfather. My father was a pastor. We went to church, it seemed as a kid,
every day. (It was probably only all day Sunday and Wednesday evenings, but
who’s counting?) I knew all about the birth of Christ and Christmas, as well as
His death and resurrection and Easter. I became a pious, legalistic pseudo
Christian until I was in High School. Even with knowing and hearing the facts
behind the celebrations I wasn’t a true believer. I wore the trappings (to the
annoyance of anyone around me, I’m sure) until I met Jesus on my own, apart
from the family legacy.
You don’t become a Christian by osmosis. Just because you
have a family legacy you are not ushered into the fold. Whether your parents
walk the talk or not, doesn’t mean you automatically become a believer or not.
The people I spoke of above all came to faith, without help from their parents.
With all the teaching you could wish for, I resisted the faith for years (and
even beyond my initial belief I struggled for years to really claim it and live
it). No excuses and no free passes. We all have to come to faith on our own.
But, that isn’t to say it becomes harder when parents stop
teaching and children grow up not knowing there is even something to seek.
Those children go on to have children of their own, and today we have a lot of
people who know nothing about who God is or how God works. They are left to the
presentation of the media and the horrible examples of the Christian far
right. Christianity, if thought of at
all, appears to be a religion of judgmental, legalistic busybodies, who can’t
even live it out as they push it on others. But mostly, beyond politics,
Christianity is lost. Like the Israelites who forgot Moses’ command to teach
their children and remind themselves on a continual basis what God had done for
them, we have an entire generation today totally ignorant of the Christian God.
I don’t want to oversimplify. I know it is more complicated.
But certainly we who call ourselves Christian should make sure the stories get
told, the evidence is presented and our lives reflect the message. We each have
a story to tell, our own leaving Egypt
and crossing the wilderness story. Let’s make a more concerted effort to
remind ourselves of our journey and God’s grace, and then find a way to share
our story with someone who hasn’t had the same experience.
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