What does our culture celebrate? And most revealing, what observances of popular culture are Christians uncritically joining?
Today is the “Day of the Dead.” “Families across Mexico spend the night with their departed loved ones in cemeteries decorated with marigolds (the traditional flowers of the dead), sugar skulls and cardboard skeletons, tissue-paper decorations and fruits and nuts.” The Day of the Dead has come to the United States, “to become a part of mainstream popular culture, much like the Easter bunny or Santa Claus.” “A highlight will be a series of ofrendas or altars – installations which pay tribute to people who have died….”
This is different than our grandkids putting on spooky costumes. “The ultimate thing about the Day of the Dead is that it is a beautiful way to deal with death,” said Cesareo Moreno, curator of the National Museum of Mexican Art in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. “It doesn’t avoid it. It embraces the idea of death as a part of life.” (Kyle MacMillian, Chicago Sun-Times, September 23, 2016; Agenda 13).
That’s a far different culture than the one we followers of Jesus live in. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). “Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it” (Isaiah 28:18). “They are surprised when you do not join them,” said Peter to the culturally different Christians of his day (1 Peter 4:4). Is Jesus’ life so deep in you, so deep in our church, that we are culturally different?
“The powers of death have done their worst, But Christ their legions hath dispersed.
Let shouts of holy joy outburst. Alleluia” (Lutheran Service Book, 464, 2).
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