A Defense of Easter

Ok, I know I said that I would be MIA for a while, but I've seen and heard things pertaining to Easter over the past few days that were really hurtful to me. They mainly come from some Messianic acquaintances that I have, and the story goes something like this: Why do you celebrate Easter? Easter was made up by a man who hated Jews. Jesus was a Jew who celebrated Passover. If you celebrate Easter and not Passover you hate the Jews and you hate Jesus. That's an oversimplification, and not all people who hold to celebrating Passover over Easter would go nearly that far, but some do. So, I guess this is my response to those who wonder why most Christians celebrate Easter and not Passover.

I see and hear more and more about this, particularly around Christmas and Easter. Why do you celebrate those holidays and not the traditional Jewish feasts? Jesus celebrated Passover, are you better than Jesus? Why do you celebrate Easter and not Passover? Did you know that Christmas and Easter were pagan holidays? These questions, and this whole attitude really mystifies and saddens me, and I have very simple answers for all of these questions. My main response is this: Because I am not a Jew, and no, I don't think I'm better than them, or better than my savior.

I heard a messianic rabbi preach once, and he said something that really stuck with me. He was explaining how strange he finds it that the church considers itself to be the new Israel. It’s not. Not even metaphorically. To be considered a part of Israel one must establish a lineage not just from Abraham and Isaac, but also, and most importantly, from Jacob. It’s a very literal requirement and one that I, and most people I know do not meet. Now, I respect the Jews immensely. I know that they are God’s chosen people, and I believe that they were meant to lead the new Church (which obviously didn't happen since the church is now mostly Gentile), but all that being said, I’m still not a Jew.

Paul dealt a lot with this issue. How Jewish was the church meant to be? And I believe, from studying his writings, that we were given a lot of leeway in that regard. True Christianity is not instantiated in a particular culture, which is a good thing. Our faith is trans-cultural, and the worst mistake we can make is to try and tie it definitively to human practices. Now, I realize that celebrations like Passover and the other Jewish feasts came from God and not from man, but I believe that there is Biblical precedent for Gentile believers to have freedom, not only to not celebrate these feasts, but to create celebrations of their own. One example comes from Circumcision. The Jews were commanded to be circumcised, but when they began making that a requirement for conversion, Paul repudiated them, and even called them preachers of a false Gospel. This is a big deal. He’s clearly stating that true faith is not found in any practice, and he even encourages Greek believers to remain uncircumcised (all of this is extrapolated particularly from 1 Corinthians 7: 17-21, although there are many more instances of this opinion  even dating back to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15). Similarly, feast days and holidays are not required to be kept. Celebrations like that are for man. They help us to remember and celebrate the important things in our lives.

This brings me to my final point. Celebrations are both an outpouring and an expression of particular culture. The Jewish feasts are for the Jews. They hold special significance and meaning for this particular people that I could never begin to fully understand and participate in. Passover, for example, does contain many typological references to Christ and His ministry, but even if I were to intellectually comprehend this I would not be as fully able to appreciate it as a Jew would. My people weren't led out of captivity, my people aren't God’s chosen ones. My people were poor Mexican farmers and European peasants. But do you know what I can relate to, what I can comprehend on both a deeply intellectual, spiritual, and emotion level? The holiday of Easter. It is an expression of my culture, it is for people like me, one who was called out of a mass of a lost lonely people, who had no claim to salvation, but was offered Grace anyways. So, I fully support our Messianic brothers and sisters who celebrate Passover. I think they should, and would be wrong not to. But I also ask that they would express the same tolerance and understanding to the Gentile Church. It’s not that we think we’re better than Jesus, that we don’t want to celebrate the things he celebrated. It comes from a humble acknowledgement that we are not part of God’s chosen nation, and we do not want to trivialize their celebrations by participating in things that have no historical or cultural connection to us. That being said, we have right as human beings to celebrate and commemorate the saving work of Christ in a way that allows us to rejoice in the fact that we were ‘grafted on’, as it were, to the Olive Tree of Faith.

*Just a note to say that I'm not against Gentile Christians partaking in the Passover celebration, if they do it in good faith. This is more about why I celebrate Easter over Passover, because I personally have a tendency to break things I'm not familiar with into little intellectual puzzles, which would not be fair to the celebration itself. I also think most Christians would be the same way. They could understand it, but not appreciate it. Also, I added some Biblical references in, because those are a good thing to have in a post where you make a case for a certain Biblical interpretation right? Also... I added a picture, because pictures make everything more interesting. 

Just a Note

     

    To say that I will be leaving the blogging world for a period of about 6 weeks. I have to write eleven papers in the next six weeks, not little papers either, big long ones. In order to minimize my distractions and encourage timely craftsmanship, I am putting a parent block on my computer, and blocking all such distracting internet websites, such as facebook, pinterest, blogger, deviant art, etc. So, I bid you all a very fond farewell. I shall return as soon as I've survived the freaking hardest semester I've ever had in my life. (e.l.e.v.e.n. p.a.p.e.r.s.). I'll even have things to write about, and all summer to write about them!

  

Can you Hear the People Sing?

     

 
    "Can you hear the people sing, singing the song of the French Enlightenment?" That's not exactly how it goes, but that's not really important. What's really important is that this is a song about the French Enlightenment (and so are several other songs throughout the play). 'Well, what's wrong with that?' you might ask. Well, nothing and everything. It is a play that has a great deal to do with the June Rebellion, so you would, of course expect such songs. However, the French Enlightenment in general was an incredibly problematic philosophical movement on nearly every level. It has very little to redeem it (although the good things it said were very important, just misunderstood and misapplied). Which is why I think it's kind of funny that this is one of everyone's favorite songs, when it represents such a horrible thought movement.

     Ok, ok, what was so horrible about the French Enlightenment then? Well... pretty much everything, actually. It started out well enough. The people of Paris (and France in general) are miserable. The aristocrats are just absolutely ridiculous in terms of their lavishness and licentiousness while everyone else is starving and dying. So, in response to this the Enlightenment does make sense. But let me back up, and do a little background work.The Enlightenment, the French Enlightenment in particular, is a philosophical movement that began in the seventeenth century, right after the Baroque and Rococo periods, if anyone wants to place it artistically. It stemmed/ was inspired by the writings of Rene Descartes (although I'm not nearly as sure as they were that he would have completely supported their undertaking). The French Enlightenment was basically an attempt to free the world from the trapping and superstitions of the previous age (which they regarded as the Medieval Era, lumping the Renaissance in with themselves, which was completely revisionist and not really accurate). They, then, wanted to start over and build a new world founded entirely on human reason. If your idea could be rationally supported then it was completely ok. This had several not so surprising results. Christianity, the faith that France was built on? Superstition! The government? Well, since we rejected Christianity we have no need to respect those in authority over us. Rebel! Everything, and I literally mean everything, that people wanted to keep they were now scrambling to find rationalistic reasons for. There was no room for emotion (the stoic philosophies made a huge comeback), there was no room for God, no room for humanity really. This is clearly an incredibly truncated and simplified version of Enlightenment philosophy and effects. Clearly it was much more complicated than this, but I already wrote a report on it, and I'm not doing it again.

   So anyways, yes. The Enlightenment was bad. By cutting all ties with both their historical and religious past the French people (because this became a people's philosophy) started to make some pretty terrible decisions. Things escalated quickly. At one point, and this is a true story to show you how much they elevated human reason during the Enlightenment, Notre Dame was taken over and where the altar was, they placed the goddess Reason who was personified by a whore. And basically all of this came to a horrific conclusion in the French Revolution. The Revolution was like the monster baby child of the Enlightenment, and so was the reign of terror that followed. Human beings can rationalize terrible things if they strip reason of its proper confines. Social Contract theory? Well, they tried that, and guess what it led to. Thank you Enlightenment!

Now anyways, this has become incredibly rambley  I didn't mean for this to be an incoherent history/philosophy lesson. I really just wanted to say that 'Can you Hear the People Sing' is a song about Enlightenment Philosophy, and that, just like the French Revolution, the June Rebellion was a terrible idea. We may admire those bight eyed idealists like Enjorlas, but they were incredibly dangerous people. Nobody really wanted a second Revolution, at least not most of the people who could remember the first one. And also, the Middle Ages were awesome, and not Dark at all. Who started calling them the Dark Ages? Enlightenment thinkers. Boom. I'm not very good at streaming my thoughts into a coherent structure. To be fair I wrote a twelve page paper today, so I'm not that coherent right now, but hey, this is one more thing to check off my Spring Break to-do list. And, for the record, I do like this song, and I love this story. Just so people know. I only hate the Enlightenment, but there are plenty of reasons to hate it.

   

Active Dinner: or just basically a good week

Every year for my sorority the actives get pledges (which I spoke about before). We get them a bunch of presents and love them and it's super fun. Then all of the pledges will put on a dinner for the active and give their 'bigs' a paddle so that we can beat them when they get out of line (lol, jk). This year our dinner's theme was Masquerade Ball. Above you see the mask that I made. I was going for a Robin theme (like Batman and Robin) so I used the design for Tim Drake's mask in Young Justice and fancified it a bit :) The dinner was good, my only complaint was that every sauce was spicy. I don't mind spicy things, but I was not expecting spicy barbecue sauce... that's all I'm saying. The pledges all did a fantastic job with limited funds, and the net was result was really fun!

Here is my beautiful little presenting me with my paddle!

Here is my intense excitement!

My little and me... let the mass picture tacking begin.

Hayleigh, Me, Lauren, and her little Cora :)

All the actives with their paddles. Let me tell you what. We were all opening our paddles and everyone was watching and all the actives were like.... 'well, this is embarrassing. I hope my big never looks at the paddle I made her again because we all sucked compared to this pledge class!'

Here's my paddle, proudly displayed on my wall. It was definitely one of the best. I was ecstatic. I think it's gorgeous :) 

Oh, and to top off a great couple of days my co-worker gave me this puppy on Wednesday. so yeah.... and I got books in the mail. That makes this essay writing weekend a bit better. If I can get through this week I can sleep in and read books over break! That's really all I had to say :/

The Attack of the Killer Essays

    

 You know that feeling you get when your professors assign 7 essays all of which are due within the next week, and you have a midterm, and have to waste hours on a mandatory museum trip that you've already been on three times this year already? And you work 20 hours a week? And you feel like actually attending class keeps you from getting what you need to get done done? And you stop reading for class because you don't have enough time. And you're in a group for a project that's worth a large portion of your grade and a full half contribute nothing? And you are so intimidated by the mountain of work that's piled up you waste hours on pinterest so you don"t have to think about it which ultimately makes you feel worse?


........................................................................................



Because that's how I've been feeling this week.

Literary Heroine Blog Party

     So, I've heard of this before, but I guess this is the first time I'll be participating. It seemed like fun, although I'll be the first to admit that I prefer heroes to heroines, maybe it's because the genres I like aren't very good at writing female characters. I can't really think of any female superheroes that I think are amazing, and only a few good fantasy girls. The link to the original post and information can be found here. 

Here are the questions :

~ The Questions ~

Introduce yourself! Divulge your life's vision, likes, dislikes, aspirations, or something completely random! 

I'm Mariah. I aspire to one day live my life as the Sophists lived theirs (albeit in a more Socratic way) and wander about the world talking about philosophy, and corrupting the youth of Athens by asking questions. I like a myriad of various things including redundancy, Batman, the color green, good literature, and television shows with ridiculous premises. I don’t like fruit.
What, to you, forms the essence of a true heroine? 

A well educated, strong woman who is wise enough to acknowledge her natural limitations and is not too proud to accept help when she needs it. A girl who isn't dependent on a man’s affections to serve as an evaluation of her self-worth, but isn't afraid or disdainful of love when it comes to her. And a woman who stands up for what she believes in and shows strong internal character.
Share (up to) four heroines of literature that you most admire and relate to. 

Sophie Hatter, Marguerite St. Just, Hermione Granger, and Lady Una  
Five of your favorite historical novels?  

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a die-hard fantasy fan, but if I had to choose historical novels I’d pick Wonderful Fool, The Samurai, The Faerie Queene (That counts, it’s historical allegory),The Black Arrow, and Scaramouch. 

Out of those five books who is your favorite main character and why? 

Does it have to be a girl? If so, I’d pick Una because she’s a wonderful person. Her knight leaves her and she does everything she can to get back to him while maintaining her integrity of character. She could have been angry with him, but she forgives him and helps to save him. 

Out of those five books who is your favorite secondary character and why? 

Joanna Sedley, because she’s hilarious. She disguises herself as a boy and tries desperately to act boyish, for her own safety, but is just so terrible at it. She makes a much better girl.
      If you were to plan out your dream vacation, where would you travel to - and what would you plan to do there? 

I would visit ancient ruins like Machu Pichu, Stonehenge, etc. and learn more about the ancient cultures that constructed them :)
What is your favorite time period and culture to read about? 

I LOVE the Middle Ages. They had the best stories, and their cosmology is beautiful! I like pretty much all of Western Europe, although at the moment I have an intense fondness for the Norse myths and Arthurian legends.
You have been invited to perform at the local charity concert. Singing, comedy, recitation - what is your act comprised of? 

I’ll recite, I guess. I’d choose a slew of John Donne’s poetry that shows the maturation of his thought over his life. Or perhaps T.S. Eliot’s Book of Practical Cats.
If you were to attend a party where each guest was to portray a heroine of literature, who would you select to represent? 

Well, if I were to choose based on purely selfish motives I’d go with Galadriel because she said cool things and elves get to wear really pretty clothes.
What are your sentiments on the subject of chocolate? 

I’m in favor of all things chocolate and of those who produce such things. After all, who is it who makes the sun rise, and who sprinkles it with dew? The candy man. That sounds like a pretty important job to me.
Favorite author(s)? 

Um, wow. Diana Wynn Jones, Tolkien, Lewis, Lewis Carroll, Shusaku Endo, Chesterton, and Edmund Spenser. 
Besides essentials, what would you take on a visiting voyage to a foreign land? 

I've seen traveling trunks that are for small libraries. I’d also take a small brass telescope and a compass.  
In which century were most of the books you read written? 

Well, Cervantes pretty much invented the novel in, what? The fifteenth century? Sixteenth? But it really took off in the 18^th century, so, if I had to guess, most of the books I’ve read fall somewhere in the 18^th to 19^th centuries.  
In your opinion, the ultimate hero in literature is…

Well clearly Batman is the ideal hero in any genre, but since there has been, nor will there ever be, a decent novel written about him I will have to go with someone like Bilbo Baggins or Howl Jenkins. Neither of them is what you would expect a hero to be like, but there’s more to them than meets the eye, and when there’s really trouble they put aside their fear and other a sundry of character flaws and do the right thing. On the one hand that makes them both incredibly human, and easy to sympathize with, and also incredibly admirable, and allows them to serve as an ideal to strive towards. Also Samwise Gamgee, because there is nothing wrong with him. 
Describe your ideal dwelling place. 

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. 

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with paneled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats – the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill – The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it – and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.”

Sum up your fashion style in a short sentence. 

I’m just a tall girl trying to find pants that go below my ankles, skirts that reach my knees, and shirtsleeves that end past my wrist.
Have you ever wanted to change a character’s name? 

Yes, Eragon is way too close to Aragorn. The mix ups are infuriating.  
In your opinion, the most dastardly villain of all literature is... 

Well, the first name that came to mind is Captain Hook, but he’s too much of a good sport to be really dastardly. The second was Clarion the Witch-boy, but he’s a graphic novel character. So… the most truly dastardly literary villain would have to be Satan in Paradise Lost, because come on… it doesn't get much more evil than Satan.
Three favorite Non-fiction books? 

The new Dietrich Bonhoeffer biography by Eric Mataxas (sp?), Anselm’s Proslogion, St. Augustine’s Confessions, and Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey (I had four… I hope that’s ok…).
Your duties met for the day, how would you choose to spend a carefree summer afternoon? 

Well, I've decided that summers should be spent in the single-minded mastery of one subject. This summer I’m deciding whether I should teach myself to play the violin in pursuit of a life as a wandering minstrel, or in the mastery of a completely useless dead language (like Sanskrit, or Old English).
                  Create a verbal sketch of your dream hat - in such a way as will best portray your true  character.

 It has no brim and no cap. It is covered with no adornments. It is made of neither straw, nor felt, nor of anything at all. It allows the wind to blow softly through my hair, which is bound up carelessly with a single ribbon, and allows the rain to fall on my head, making my hair clump in stiff wet locks, and will likely cause my head to chill which will likely be the cause of my catching consumption. I shall then grow gradually more pale and beautiful until I expire on a cruise ship, laying on a bed of Rose petals at sunset.
Share the most significant event(s) that have marked your life in the past year. 

I have met one of my philosophical heroes and have come to the realization that I really know very little about anything.
                    Share the Bible passage(s) that have been most inspiring to you recently.

Isaiah 1:18; Hebrew 11:1; James 1: 2-8

Sigma Phi Lambda: Big/Little Shennanigans

    

    In my college experience I've had the incredible opportunity to become part of a wonderful Christian sisterhood called Sigma Phi Lambda. I was never one to ever consider joining a sorority, and I'm still not I guess, but phi lamb is wonderfully different. It's a sisterhood of girls who love Christ and just want to help build each other up. It's fun and not competitive and catty like other sororities (note the generalized blanket statement). This year has been great because this is the first year that I get to have a little sister! The whole first week of our relationship she has no idea who I am, but I get to give her presents. It's called pamper me week. Then, on Tuesday it was our 'Big' Reveal and we finally got to meet each other in a Big/Little context instead of a 'Hey, I know who you are' context! I guess I just wanted to share some highlights from this fun week:

On the first day of pamper-me-week I gave her these. One is a shadowbox filled with sheet music from songs that she loves and the other is a wooden letter that I decorated for her. I must admit a selfish aspect in some of these. I really like making things and this was a perfect excuse to buy the supplies :)

The second day I gave her these. That picture is actually the template I drew to overlay on dictionary/old book pages. It's called 'upcyling' and if you've never heard of it here's an amazing etsy shop that sells them: Link. The not real picture is shown because I had already framed and wrapped the real one :/

Day four was this AMAZING journal and pens that I found. I was sorely tempted to keep these for myself... but I didn't. I still regret that choice. The really fun part of this (for me) was those little charms you see sticking out of the top if the journal if you look closely. I made velvet ribbon bookmarks and that was super easy and fun. Thank you pinterest! link

Day four was also the Big Reveal day!!! For my last present I knew my Little was obsessed with lambs (how fortuitous since we're in phi LAMB! HAHAHAHahahahahahah....) So, I cross-stitched her name on a lamb pattern and got her some lamby paraphernalia. :)

Annnnnnnnnnnnddddd the BIG Reveal!

I guess we like each other so that was cool... I guess :D

     So, that's all I really had to say about that. Sorry my posts have become increasingly sporadic, I'm doing school and working this semester which is a new challenge, but making money for a car is a good thing. Now that I have my schedule figured out I'll try to post more.