Magyar Egyház, 2011 (90. évfolyam, 1. szám)
2011-02-01 / 1. szám
6. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ LENT Lent originally was established for new Christians, those who experienced a call. They were to spend 40 days and 40 nights preparing for their baptism. If at the end they still wanted to follow Jesus, then on Easter Eve they would be baptized as the sun was rising in the east, signaling the new day, the new era, inaugurated because of the Resurrection. I am sure it had a powerful significance for them, to have prepared for their vocation as Christians the same way Jesus prepared for His vocation as the Messiah: 40 days of introspection and self-examination. Later the church used the 40 days as a time of renewal for those who were already Christians, because at a certain point everyone in the empire...was baptized as infants. So the time of Lent was used as a time of renewal and recommitment to the Christian life, examining our lives in light of the One we are supposed to follow. EASTER Historically there was once a great debate about the date of Easter. Some observed it on the same day as the Jewish Passover. Others insisted it must be on a Sunday. Should there be a fixed date for Easter; or should it be moveable, matching the lunar calendar with our solar calendar? It must be after the vernal equinox; but must it be a full week, as Orthodox scholars say, or any Sunday afterward as Catholic scholars say? In all ages and places, all have agreed as to the meaning of Easter, and that may be more important than the method of setting the date. A man said he went to church on Easter Sunday in America, flew to Europe and a week later went to church on Easter Sunday in Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe they follow the Orthodox calendar, which figures the date of Easter differently. That year, he had two Easters. Really Christians everywhere have 52 Easters, for every Sunday is Resurrection Day. Don Aycock tells the story of Menelik II, who was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 until 1913: "News of a successful new means of dispatching criminals reached him. The news was about a device known as an electric chair. The Emperor eagerly ordered one for his country. Unfortunately, no one bothered to warn him that it never would work because Ethiopia at that time had no electricity. Menelik was determined that his new purchase should not go to waste. He converted the electric chair into a throne. "There was another occasion when an instrument of death became a throne. On a Palestinian hillside about 20 centuries ago, a cross became a throne for one named Jesus of Nazareth. To this day, that ancient instrument of torture and death is converted into a powerful symbol of life, hope and resurrection. Millions of people around the world see the cross as God's way of indicating His refusal to let death and destruction have the final word." CROSS In a recent issue of his Key Life magazine, Steve Brown observed, "The source of almost all spiritual problems is an inappropriate effort to avoid the cross. When we, as the Church, turn away from the cross, we miss the path that God has given us - the path to freedom, joy, faithfulness and forgiveness. "We think the cross is fine and necessary for those who aren't saved...but once we're saved, it is no longer relevant to our lives. We, as Christians, forget the cross is the very paradigm for who we are and everything we do, think, feel and believe." RESURRECTION In his day, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was one of the most powerful men on earth. Bukharin was a Russian Communist leader who took part in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda and was a member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science were big sellers. A story is told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd, he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument and proof against it. An hour later, he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium, but then one man stood. He surveyed the crowd, first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!" On Easter morning, say together with the Christian World: CHRIST IS RISEN! An American visiting churches in Hungary worshipped one Sunday in a little house church near Budapest. After the service they said, "There is a man here you must meet. He is the man who came back from the dead." The story was that the man was in the hospital and declared dead. Just as they were putting the sheet over him, they saw the flicker of an eyelid. They resuscitated him, he recovered, and there he was in church that Sunday. Of course they knew, as we do, that there really was a Man who came back from the dead; and you can meet Him in any church on any Sunday. Why didn't they just lock up Jesus? That would have stopped Him from teaching, preaching and gathering followers. It worked with John the Baptist. Why didn't they just lock Him up? The answer is they knew no prison could hold Him. They knew about His miracles of healing and His miracles regarding nature. They knew no prison could hold Him. What they did not know was that no tomb could hold Him - that death could not hold Him. The apostle Peter said it was not possible for death to hold Him (Acts 2:24). Some find it impossible to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Christians find it impossible not to believe. If the world's one perfect Man could not survive the grave, what hope would there be for us? CHRIST At the heart of the old city of Quebec is a church called Our Lady of the Victories. It was first named The Church of the Christ Child. Then the French won a significant military victory, and the name was changed to Our Lady of the Victory. When they won another battle, it was changed it to Victories. After that, they were defeated by the British...so they didn't change the name any more. It seems a shame the original name was not kept; that history trumped theology; that it is not still The Church of the Christ Child.
