Easter is almost here!! With chocolate bunny eggs and… chocolate Jesus!

‘Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Catholics complained.But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as “a sickening display.” Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.”

The artwork was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate, and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross. Unlike the typical religious portrayal of Christ, the Cavallaro creation does not include a loincloth.

The sculpture was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit was planned for Easter Sunday.

But word of the confectionary Christ infuriated Catholics, including Egan, who described it as “a sickening display.” Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League, said it was “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.”’ (Excerpted from article @ http://www.religionnewsblog.com/17855/chocolate-jesus-exhibition-canceled-after-catholics-protest)

Is making a chocolate Jesus any worse than making a stone Jesus… with a loincloth of course. Is it any different than making a miniature metal one to keep handy in your pocket as a talisman?

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: ~Exodus 20:4 (Emphasis added)

Though I am quite aware that ‘Christians’ are not under the old law and all it’s rules they are probably still beneficial to our well-being. Like the one that says, Thou shall not kill. That is good advice. God just might have known why that was added in the Ten Commandments.

Ponder with me to venture a guess as to why God might have made a commandment to not make ‘any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above’. That would mean angels… and God, or to be clearer… Jesus.Some religions have him sculpted, bronzed, hanging, laying, painted, and envisioned in every imaginable way. Can one even risk guessing what Jesus might possibly even look like? He was a Jew so maybe he had dark hair and a NOT so white complexion. But*he*was*God*. Deity. And who… who might I dare ask, could know what ‘Gawd’ would look like? What are the characteristics of perfection? And why would someone want to limit ALL that he is to only what they could perceive in their puny finite minds? Maybe this is why he made it the second commandment. It must have been pretty important to him.

These ‘Christians’ I speak about also tag Jesus, his death, resurrection, bunny eggs and chocolate all in the same thought and breath. They tout lent and all the so-called spiritual activities but somehow this Jesus they have so eloquently created in their minds and hearts does not exist in reality.

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.~1John 4:12

I just read this funny on another blog: “This is my new exercise plan. Just came across this exercise suggested for older people to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. It seems so easy, so I thought I’d pass it on to some of my friends. The article suggested doing it three days a week.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax.

Each day, you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks.

Then 50-lb potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold your arm straight for more than a full minute. (I’m at this level.)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.”

Is that like start with church on Sundays and work up to adding Wednesdays? When you have mastered that throw in a potluck, a prayer vigil and a struggle to get to the missions meetings. If you are real strong, in a few months you can include a retreat or convention. And maybe…just maybe...one day you will include some Jesus… and a stab at a real relationship with him.

As some of you may know, I am relearning a whole bunch of my ‘Christianity’ due to a memory issue. I have a question that I do not seem to understand concerning Easter.

Luke 24:46 says, ‘And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.’

So if the bible says he died around noon, I am assuming it was what folks call Good Friday, and rose on the ‘third’ day, would that not make it Monday morning instead of ‘Easter-Sunday’ morning?

Why do we Christians celebrate his death on Friday and his resurrection only two days later? Am I completely missing something? PLEASE someone enlighten me! I am absolutely clueless on this one!

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, in the name of ‘Christianity’, my then husband deserted my three kids and myself in a van on the side of the road. Thankfully, it was Southern California and not Minnesota.

We were homeless for about 5-6 months. We couldn’t get financial help because we didn’t have an address and we couldn’t get an address without financial help. It was a mess.

We bathed in parks. Ate things most normal Americans would turn their noses at and lived inside our ‘cozy’ van.

The churches were mostly useless. One church thinking it was doing us a big religious favor gave us a bag of food. Inside was a super sized bag of spaghetti noodles along with the extra large size of Ragu sauce. There were other items like this that were of no value to a homeless person.

How did they intend for me to not just cook the spaghetti but to store it afterwards since everything they gave me was in bulk and I obviously did not have a refrigerator? It was truly sad.

At first, I spend a good portion of my days crying. I was crying more for my kids. I was crying out to God to see our needs. And he did. He just didn’t exactly view them like I did… with a finite mind.

In time I grew to enjoy the solitude that living on the streets provided. I didn’t have rent or bills or collectors. I wasn’t boggled down with the everyday minute things that we as humans tend to blow out of proportion. My most important decisions were to keep the kids safe, find a park or somewhere for the kids to have some fun, find food, and find somewhere safe to park at night.

Those seem like huge things to accomplish but folks do most of that everyday anyhow but just within the confines of their stationary dwelling. This is obviously done in a different manner and it is attached with all sorts of extra curricular necessities that become ‘needs’. To the homeless all these extra-fluff things become obsolete and unnecessary to maintain daily.

Even in the midst of all that we went through during that season, I have to admit I had the greatest amount of peace that I have ever possessed in my life. God was more than super-naturally good. He provided as he saw fit. It stretched me. I saw life from outside my comfortable house and got to be one of ‘them’. I learned the heartaches and the pressures that street folks deal with. I also learned that too many homeless folks do not want the help to come in from out of the cold because of all the strings attached to it.

In the midst of it all, I knew that I knew that God was right there and that he had a plan. I knew that he was in control and that even if I got mad at him, screamed, and cried, ultimately he knew my heart only wanted what his wanted and I would wait in his timing to deliver me. And he did… very graciously.

I recently read a blog about blessing one’s enemy. I have had that idea come past me many, many times in my life. In my religious Charismaniac mind, I would want to ask God to bless them profusely, abundantly, financially and meet all their needs. (Wow! Aint I special to be able to pray that for my enemies?!)

Since trying to ditch my ‘religiosity’, I am now struck with a thought and pervading question of ‘why I would pray such things?’ Why would I pray financial prosperity on my enemy? I do not stop and question this to be vindictive but out of Christ’s love within me.

I ponder if financial prosperity would lead them to Christ. (But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation Luke 6:24). Would it bring them to the cross? Would it benefit them for eternity? Not so much. The financial security would be a curse and not a blessing if it lead them away from the cross.

So what would be the absolute best I could give my enemies? That God’s will be done in their life; that situations would happen, good or bad, to bring them to their knees at the cross.

The cross is the absolute best I could give my enemies. Therefore, I would pray that if God needs to break them to ‘bless’ them, so be it.

If by some strange miracle they could come to the cross by way of riches… then I pray God would bless them financially and prosper them mightily.