Living in the Mystery

By Cal Cook

Having not grow up in the church and even coming to Christ outside the church I have always looked at the things that we do in church with a bit of skepticism. In the past I used to say quite regularly, “Where’s that in the Bible?” when I would see some Religious Ceremony going on…now I’ve learned to at least hold my tongue now and then! I’ve also learned that most of the time even when something isn’t specifically in the Bible the things we do are meant to point to something that is. Sometimes though trying to find reason or justification for something just leads to a dead end. You can always find someone with an answer…you know one they’ve come up with. But sometimes trying to find some historical evidence or reason is a bit trying!

Today as I write this it is Good Friday. A day that I have asked in the past, “What is good about it, it’s the day Jesus died for my sins it ought to be Sad Friday or Mournful Friday, not Good Friday?” Of course others have told me it’s the day my sins were atoned for, that day I was made right with God and that is what is good about it… OK I like that answer. Until I looked it up and found out that the rest of the Christian World doesn’t refer to it as Good Friday! It’s called ‘Friday of Preparation’ in the Liturgical history of the Western Church. In the Latin nations it’s called Holy Friday and ‘Great Friday’ in the Slavic speaking world. The Germans call it ‘Friday of Mourning’ and in Norway it’s called ‘Long Friday’.

It turns out only the English speaking nations and the Dutch call it Good, and some speculate that is just a corruption of ‘God’s Friday’. There are so many names for special days it can really be confusing…Maundy Thursday at least it has a connection to the Latin mandatum for mandate or commandment. So I thought I would look up Easter and find some Greek or Latin word that it would be connecting it to resurrection or new life or something…nope!

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia: New Advent that I go to when I’m trying to find some historical background for things ‘churchy’ the term Easter actually refers to: Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring  -That is according to Bede a church historian writing in the early 700’s AD. Other sources say the name comes from an Egyptian fertility goddess and its where we get the Easter eggs from. Makes me want to stop calling it Easter and start calling it Resurrection Sunday!

It turns out not only do we not really understand the name we give the day, we also don’t agree when it is! The early church having deep Jewish roots followed the Jewish calculations for Passover (which involves lunar cycles) and then put ‘Resurrection Sunday’ as the first Sunday after Passover. Yet as the Jews were more and more shunned by the ignorant Christian Church it was argued that we should not rely on the Jews to calculate the day we ought to do it ourselves…as there had been some disagreements even among various Jewish communities as to the proper calculation for the Passover. So here we are some 2000 years later and the Eastern Orthodox Church calculates it one way and the Western Churches calculate it another! Surprisingly in 2010 and 2011 we both agree on which day is Easter…I mean ‘Resurrection Sunday’ (there was a little chuckle there in case you missed it.)

While some might find all of this foolishness proof that there is no God I find it to be just the opposite. Only God could keep this mess together! Only a God with a sense of humor could still love us despite our ridiculousness! When we can’t even get two simple commandments right how can we ever hope to get to Heaven without a loving God.

Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself…Lord help me even as I mess that up too!