Dwelling on material things is causing the Easter message to be pushed in the background each year, according to Dr. Raymond Neilly, president of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.
“Some persons are forgetting the spiritual element of Easter,” said Dr Neilly on Wednesday, as Christians in The Bahamas and around the world continued to observe Holy Week, leading to Easter, which they believe marks the day Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.
“More and more, there is a temptation to worship at other altars, such as the altar of materialism,” Dr. Neilly said. “Because we emphasize the more material aspect of life the message of the cross becomes more and more offensive to people.”
He added, “Because people’s minds are focused elsewhere we are drawn away by the attractive music of the world and sometimes we are not attuned to what God is saying to us.”
Dr. Neilly said unless people are careful, their ears would be deafened by modern society to the voice of God.
In his Easter message, Anglican Archbishop the Most Rev’d Drexel Gomez, said in the midst of so many examples of depression, defeatism, and oppression due to the stressful forces, Christians are challenged to demonstrate “victorious living,” because they are witnesses to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus whose powerful and liberating presence they experience in their lives.
Historically, he said, the church has given a strong witness in its Resurrection Liturgies but, in many instances, it has failed to demonstrate victorious living in daily life.
“Our challenge now is to reverse that trend as we hold both aspects together: namely, we continue to be joyful and enthusiastically offer our Easter Liturgies as people of the resurrection and, at the same time, we show the world what victorious living really looks like,” Archbishop Gomez said.
“We will only fulfill the two-fold vocation to the extent that we submit to the guidance and the direction of the Holy Spirit of God who calls us to new life in Christ.”
The archbishop urged Christians to exhibit “Christ-like values and standards” and noted that from the earliest days of the Christian formation, the resurrection has been at the centre of the church’s proclamation and witness.
He reminded that the resurrection has a central place because God acts in Christ to begin his new creation in which the power of sin, death and evil has been broken.
“The resurrection has always been a celebration of God’s victory in Christ,” Archbishop Gomez said.
Pastor Lyall Bethel, senior pastor at Grace Community Church, also pointed to Easter being a joyous celebration.
“I feel [that] there is a sense among the Bahamian public that it is not business as usual and we are celebrating the fact that Christ came and died and was raised again from the dead,” Pastor Bethel said.
He believes many people will treat the holiday season respectfully by attending church on Good Friday and or Easter Sunday.
By: Ian-Marie Darville, The Bahama Journal
