I think I might be stepping on some toes here today. I might be slaughtering some sacred cows with this topic but I’m going to ask you to stick with me for the ride and not prematurely step out of the food line because in doing so I’m also hoping to serve up some juicy hamburgers of practical theology. (How’s that for a metaphor taken too far!)
I have a beef (HA! I did it again) with Christmas. Why is it that Christmas receives top billing in our hierarchy of Christian holidays while Easter is relegated to a supporting role? Why do we endure a whole month of Christmas build up complete with carol festivals, outreach events, Sunday school programs full of little children wearing bathrobes and tea-towels, candles, parties, celebrations and gifts – when we’re lucky if most churches devote a single week of build—up to Easter and outside of mainline or liturgical churches it only amounts to one extra church gathering (Good Friday) in that most holy of weeks?
Why is it that churches spend ¾ of their decorating budget during the Christmas season and most chose to reuse the six fake Easter lilies as the only defining visual for this most holy of days? (of course at this point I’m engaging in a little bit of hyperbole to make my point – but stereotypes exist not because they’re universally applicable but because they are generally so) Why do we make such a big deal about Christmas and such a small commotion about Easter?
I recognise that much of the hoopla around Christmas is driven by the capitalistic forces of secular society – it’s a great opportunity to get people to spend a lot of money in a short period of time – but for some unexplainable reason we as Christians have bought into that philosophy hook, line and sinker and have syncretistically incorporated it into our theology. Even amongst churches who do a good job of highlighting Easter rarely does this season ever eclipse Advent and Christmas in scope or investment – something is very wrong with our priorities.
Theologically speaking Christmas accounts for 20 verses in the Gospel of Matthew including 12 verses about Epiphany(the story of the Magi) – which is really not so much about the birth of Christ as it is about the first Christmas celebration) and a chapter and a half in the Gospel of Luke. Sometimes we try to include the first chapter of John in the list of Christmas accounts – and while it is a great passage on the incarnation – it’s hardly about Christmas. What about doctrines surrounding the Christmas story? Well there are some notable ones – the doctrine of the virgin birth being the biggest one but most of the circumstances of the Christmas story exist to prove the veracity of Christ’s claim to messiahship by demonstrating the fulfilment of prophecy through the details of his birth. True and important details for sure – but let’s be honest. If the doctrine of the virgin birth was missing from Scripture (I’m not arguing against it, I’m just posing a hypothetical here for rhetorical purposes) would Christianity implode? Absolutely not! If there was no recorded evidence of Christ’s birthplace, and the circumstances surrounding his arrival in this world would we lose our salvation? No again. The theological account of the incarnation provided by John is more than adequate to explain and justify the work and ministry of Jesus. Throw out the Christmas story and we lose a bit of the richness and wonder of what God has done and is doing for humanity (well perhaps we lose more than a little bit but I’m talking quantitative not qualitative difference) – try performing the same hypothetical with the Easter story – and what are you left with?
Well without Easter, we sanitize Jesus down to the usefulness of wise hippie. He was a countercultural teacher walking around talking about love and justice and trying to get people to live a different type of life so we could all be happier. Take away Easter and you take away a meaningful way for people to come back into relationship with God. We get stuck in second temple Judaism – we have no avenue for the expansion of the church to the Gentiles (which is most of you and me), we have no church. Christ doesn’t ascend and send the Holy Spirit to his followers. Paul has no road to Damascus experience so you can forget about most of the New Testament and Christian Theology. Without Easter there is no resurrection and no future hope and in the words of Paul: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all others.”
The Easter story is THE defining event in not only Christian but human history. It is the turning point of all existence so someone please remind me again why we don’t celebrate it that way?
Big ships take a long time to turn around; and the weight of church history and tradition – even in our local contexts make for a pretty big ship. It’s hard to imagine changing the long standing practices of churches and Christians overnight but something does need to start changing. So to that end, at Estevan Alliance Church we’re starting to crank the wheel just a little bit. This Easter Sunday is the beginning – not the end of the Easter season – it is the start of one big party that is going to go on for 50 days. We are going to get together and have fellowship times, we are going to focus on the resurrection every single week and the implications of it for our life, we are going to mark out and remember the big events along the way – the Great Commission, the Ascension and Pentecost. We are going to celebrate inside the church and outside the church – we are going to let our colours show to the community over this Easter season and we are going to wrap it all up with a Pentecost Party fitting for the birthday of the Bride of Christ. 50 days of celebrating, 50 days or praise, 50 days of putting Easter back on the top of the pile of Christian holidays. Estevan Alliance Church – hold on tight – because the resurrection train is coming and you want to be on board.
It’s not that I don’t like Christmas – it’s not that I don’t think that Advent is a valuable season and that the message of Messiah’s birth doesn’t matter – it does. Lately I have been even more convinced of the amazing series of events that foretold and proclaimed that event. God is in the Christmas story – but what I am concerned with is Easter being bigger. I am convinced that however grand in scale and scope our Christmas celebrations are as a church, that our Easter celebrations must be that much greater. If we can find a way to do that without diminishing Christmas – all the better, but we must get our priorities straight.
Transformer Time:
This is Drift. If you grew up with Transformers like me you will most likely not remember who he is. If you grew up in the second generation of Transformers (Beast Wars Era) you will still not remember Drift. It's only this third generation of Transfans out there that *might* have any idea who this guy is. Which is a little strange because he's a fiigure in the Generations line of toys which is supposedly a 'greatest hits' of the Transformers universe - but do not be fooled, Drift is a new character. He was created for the Generation One universe long after Generation One had finished and was introduced in the last few years in the IDW Transformers comics continuity. This makes Drift unique amongst almost any other Transformer that has received a toy. His story however is too good to just alude to so what follows is a straight cut and paste from his article in tfwiki.net - I hope you'll enjoy reading his story.
Drift was originally a homeless Cybertronian, living on the streets and stealing energon to survive. The hopeless 'bot was befriended by Gasket, but when Gasket was killed by Autobot law enforcement after trying to stop them from executing a thief, Drift exploded with rage, grabbed the nearest gun and killed them all. Drift's knack for violence attracted the attention of the Cybertronian underground, who trained Drift as a killer. Amongst this group, Drift realized the level of corruption in the Senate, and a recruitment rally held by Megatron drew Drift in with his talk of equality. Megatron singled Drift out of the crowd, claiming to have heard great things of him, and asked him to join the Decepticons to fight for a better Cybertron. Drift agreed and, after being was hailed by the crowd, was renamed Deadlock by Megatron. Drift #2 Drift rose to become the second-in-command of Turmoil, garnering a reputation as a vicious and merciless fighter.
Deadlock prefers to pose so his legs don't block any of the action.
Much later, on an unknown planet, Deadlock led a battalion against an Autobot squadron. The
Autobots' leader called a retreat, and Deadlock's team celebrated. This was spoiled when one of the soldiers pointed out that Deadlock had been ordered to merely observe, and once again had disobeyed orders. When the soldier threatened to inform Turmoil of Deadlock's disobedience, Deadlock killed him. Claiming Turmoil was too cautious and that it was time for new leadership, he called for the other soldiers to follow him, but they summarily captured him and brought him to Turmoil. Turmoil used a stasis lock to trap him in robot mode and attempted to execute him. Deadlock managed to escape, and after initiating an emergency protocol to cover his escape, stole an escape pod and departed the ship.
Deadlock crashed on an unknown planet. After scaling some, he found a massive structure, but before he could explore, a mysterious cloaked figure appeared, named
Wing. Wing offered a deal: help him free the slaves, and he would find Deadlock a ship. Deadlock, introducing himself as "Drift," agreed, but first Drift said he needed guns. Together, they jumped some guards and stole their weapons, however a stray blast stripped Wing of his cloak, revealing him to be Cybertronian. Once they jumped into the complex, Drift automatically fled for the ship, abandoning Wing. Despite this betrayal, when Drift was attacked and nearly killed by one the slavers, Wing brought Drift back with him to a new
Crystal City, where he was repaired.
Drift #1
"We were okay with your old legs. Rest had to go."
Wing explained that they were the
Circle of Light, a group of Cybertronian scholars and scientists who abandoned the planet during the early days of the war in order to find peace and preserve Cybertron's culture. Wing and Drift were taken to a meeting with Crystal City's leader,
Dai Atlas. While Drift waited outside, Wing was admonished for bringing a corrupting influence to the city. He was ordered to keep Drift with him at all times. Afterward, Wing brought Drift to an empty room, discarded his swords and asked him what the Decepticon symbol stood for. Drift replied it meant strength, power and conviction, and the belief in the survival of the strongest. Wing offered Drift a chance to earn his freedom by defeating him without guns in combat, but Drift never succeeded. Drift grumbled that he'd never learned to fight without projectile weaponry.
Weeks later, Wing was still dominating Drift. Over time, Drift admitted that Crystal City held everything Drift had ever wanted, while the Decepticons had lost sight of this goal some time ago. Their sparring was interrupted by a summons from Dai Atlas. When they arrived in the control room, he informed them that they had received a coded signal and he thought Drift might be able to translate. Though Drift claimed he could not understand it, that night he snuck out of the city and drove far into the desert. There he met with the slavers, who had used a Decepticon code to offer Drift a deal. The code had been obtained from
Lockdown, a Decepticon sent by Megatron. The deal was simple: hand over the location of the Circle of Light or die.
Drift #2
Man, I bet those dumb G2 guys wish they had this kind of endurance.
Lockdown reminded "Deadlock" of his high-standing in the Decepticon army. Megatron held Deadlock in high esteem, and by guarding these Transformers Drift stood to lose that. Meanwhile, the head slaver,
Braid, required Cybertronian bodies to experiment on, and were willing to take captives from the neutral camp in lieu of Deadlock, in payment for the property he'd damaged earlier. After agreeing to lead the neutral Transformers into an ambush, Drift stumbled back to Crystal City, where he informed the Circle of Light about the pact he'd made with Lockdown and the slavers. Drift argued that they should fight their attackers to preserve their freedom and their way of life, but Dai Atlas sharply disagreed. He would have no fighting at all, even to preserve his own life, and blamed Drift for ruining their civilization. The others did not agree, and supported Drift. A small number of them offered to help fight the slavers while keeping the true number of their population unknown. As they reached the surface with a hastily constructed craft to make it appear as if the Circle of Light had recently crashed there, Drift revealed himself to have been rebuilt head-to-toe to match his new colleagues. With a sword mounted on each hip, Drift announced he was ready.
Drift #3Soon, Lockdown and the slavers were upon them. After slaying a few of the slavers, Drift realized that he was past the point of no return. Lockdown realized this as well, and asked the former Decepticon why he'd given it all away so easily. "What I've always wanted... the promise of a better Cybertron." But their sparring was interrupted by the death of Wing. Enraged, Drift jumped Braid, Wing's murderer, but he did not accomplish much. He was not as agile a fighter as his late friend, and Braid easily defeated him.
Before the killing blow could be delivered, Crystal City in its entirety rose from the ground, as Wing's death had spurred Dai Atlas into action. With the entirety of the population now fighting the slavers, the tide was quickly turned. Despite his injuries, Drift slew Braid with his Great Sword, while Lockdown, startled at Drift's transformation, cut his losses and left. Though the Circle of Light asked Drift to stay with them, Drift reminded them that he'd promised Wing to return the freed slaves to their homes. Drift was given Wing's Great Sword and given their blessing.
Drift #4
He's your horrible fancharacter.
Some time after leaving Crystal City and returning the slaves, Drift set off to make a difference in the Autobot/Decepticon Civil War. First, he attempted to free a group of Autobots held captive on the ship he'd previously served aboard. Upon entering Turmoil's ship, his attempt at stealth was successful until the
Wreckers arrived and blasted their way aboard. Jumping into the battle to assist them, he piqued the interest of a few Autobots.
Perceptor was injured as Turmoil entered the battle and, recognizing Drift's voice as that of his former lieutenant, attempted to destroy him. However, his attack only resulted in knocking Drift and
Kup to another room. The two quickly worked together to program the ship to overload. In his final confrontation with Turmoil, Drift stated his intention was to help, not kill, and left to rescue Perceptor before the ship blew up.
After his arrival on the Autobot ship, Kup invited Drift to join his new unit as an Autobot.
Spotlight: Drift
He thinks he's turning Japanese, he thinks he's turning Japanese, he really thinks so.
Now a crew member of the spacecraft
Trion, Drift got to know his new teammate
Blurr over many friendly games of
Go. Perceptor felt he owed a debt to Drift for saving his life, and so devoted much of his time to upgrading himself for more combat-oriented tasks. While Kup discouraged this, Drift stoically accepted Perceptor's new ambitions.
Lost & FoundThey were soon baited into a Decepticon ambush over
Cybertron. The
Trion's command codes were hacked due to their being sold to the Decepticons by an Autobot traitor, and, left defenseless, it was forced to crash-land on the desolate landscape of the planet. Eventually, the crew were found by
Optimus Prime's unit, who unfortunately proved to be
also stranded. When
Mirage was revealed by
Jazz to have been standing invisibly among them, Drift was the only one who didn't appear surprised.
All Hail Megatron #5
Seriously, you made this guy up when you were eight.
When an advance scout of the
Insecticon Swarm discovered the Autobots' base camp, Drift was dispatched to take care of it. Drift stood stock-still as the creature walked up to him, greeting it with a simple, smirking "hello" as the monstrous beast snarled in his face. Finally, he beheaded the scout with a single wave of his sword. A second creature tried to attack Drift from behind, but the smirking Autobot merely tilted his head slightly, allowing
Perceptor to kill the beast with some precision sniping.
Cliffjumper thought the incident was the coolest thing ever.
All Hail Megatron #6After
Sunstreaker revealed to
Ironhide that he was the traitor, an army of the Swarm came after them. Drift saved Ironhide while Sunstreaker blew up a bridge, killing himself and the Swarm army. Later, Drift visited Ironhide and claimed that the Decepticons had access to the Autobots' systems in a way that Sunstreaker couldn't possibly have. Ironhide asked if this meant there was a second traitor, but Drift replied that there was simply more to the situation than they knew.
All Hail Megatron #8When Mirage was showing some doubt in the Autobot cause, it was Drift who said that, now more than ever, the Autobots should continue being who they are.
Bumblebee insinuated that Drift had no right to say something like that, which started an argument that was only stopped by the return of Optimus Prime.
All Hail Megatron #9
Drift-slap! 'Cracker don't take crap!
Drift took part in the battle against the Swarm and joined the others in escaping Cybertron in Omega Supreme.
All Hail Megatron #10. On Earth, he battled the Decepticons, and when
Thundercracker volunteered to divert the humans' nuclear bomb, Drift attempted to congratulate his former comrade on seeing the light. Thundercracker called him a traitor, slapping Drift's hand away and claiming he was merely following the Decepticons'
true ideal.
All Hail Megatron #12Two years later, Drift was still with the Autobots, hiding on Earth.
...For All Mankind After Optimus Prime left the Autobots, Drift decided to stay with the larger group, rather than leave with Rodimus and his fellow defectors. Drift celebrated Bumblebee's election with numerous other Autobots.
The Hanging Sword At some point Drift traveled to
Japan and did some drift racing all by himself.
Drift #4
That's all for today. See you soon.
I've parted with most of my at home collection (probably about 40% of my overall collection) over this season - I set ground rules at the beginning that I was only selling off figures from my home collection because they were the ones that were least enjoyed - and even then I was only going to sell off the ones that were in storage and consequently seemed to be pointless to hold onto when they could be doing good elsewhere. Well thankfully I never had to dip into my collection at the office, but God did stretch me and force me to wander outside of the collection in storage and begin to part with the home collection that was on display in the house. After the commitments of Lent and one other opportunity God put in my way to be generous I ended up parting ways with 48 different toys until in the end all that remained of the home collection was this guy: Classics Optimus Prime.
