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mask131 · 6 months

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While I'm at it, because I just had a little beef with a fanatical Christian who couldn't believe I was born in a Christian setting because I had a pentagram as an icon (you see the kind of person)... [Edit: For more details they were a clearly antisemitic Orthodox person who, after refusing to believe I was anything else than Jew, atheist or a devil-worshiper, starting lashing out at me when I said I had a Catholic upbringing saying I was the cause of the crusades and the reason Hitler was alive, yada yada, you know the kind of crazy religious person]

So I decided to have a brief Christianity talk. Not much but just this:

If you ask me, yes, there is a Christian mythology, even though people do not like this term - because there is a bunch of Christian legends and Christian myths that form a Christian folklore and a set of Christian tales with distant, weak or inexistant links to ACTUAL Christian teachings, rites and the actual Christian religion.

And I do believe that folk-Christianity is a fascinating thing that deserves to exist alongside official, actual Christianity. Santa Muerte, and the local saint celebrations, and strange Christmas and Epiphany beliefs, and this story about God and Saint Peter getting drunk at a farmer's house, and the fairytale about Jesus and the Virgin Mary throwing the devil and his wife in an oven to save the girls they wanted to eat... Anyway, no matter how much one can try to destroy folk-Christianity it will always survive because it was centuries and centuries of rites and beliefs spread across several continents, and you can't destroy that easily.

The thing that many people do not get is that a lot of what is Christianity today was completely made up. There's not a lot of Christianity today that was originally in the Bible. There's a lot of Christianity as practiced by the first Christians that was lost. The dates and meanings of celebrations like Easter, All Hallows Day or Christmas kept changing all year long. Lots of saints were completely invented. Don't even get me started on the apocryphal Gospels!

This is why studying and understanding the history and evolution of a religion always allow one to be more understanding of what the religion currently is and what is actually an "option" in it. Religions never stayed the same thanks to times changing, scholarly debates, schisms dividing it into various branches, political and economical forces being at play, translations from one country to the next - and that's not just true for Christianity, but also for all other religions. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism... They all had their own evolution, they all are today very different from what they started as, and to better understand them one needs to learn of their past, what they were, what they still are, what they're not anymore. Heck, today there are talks in India of kicking out and banishing all Buddhists when the religion started there! But now, Buddhism's main nations are China and Japan, and its Indian roots almost entirely forgotten...

Fanatics usually fail to do this study of their own religion's history and evolution, because they imagine that the past was just always a carbon-copy of the present, and that their beliefs stayed unmovable monolith coming straight from God (or whatever principle they follow) instead of something that went through centuries of men and women and governments.

Just look at why and how Protestantism came to be. People realized the Church had added a lot of stuff that wasn't there when Christians first appeared, and decided to return to the "original" Christianity, rejecting all the added, invented stuff. Like the celibacy of priests: Christians priests married and had children in the first centuries following the Christ's death. And the only reason Catholic priests took a vow of celibacy and virginity was because of economic concerns with inheritance matters. Jesus never asked those that followed him to never have children or never marry or never have sex.

Or take the existence of Purgatory! Completely invented by the Church around the Middle-Ages, never spoke about by the Christ or part of the original Christian religion, then quickly removed a few centuries later as a non-existent, borderline heretical superstition, and that yet survived in folk-Christianity, and then in popular culture.

In conclusion, I would have to say that there is one book that made me realize a lot of things about religion as a whole, and that convinced me to go from Catholic-Christian to simply deist. Terry Pratchett's book "Small Gods", which exactly put into words my feelings about the world: there is a difference between religion and organized religion. There is a difference between belief and the organizations built around this belief, between faith and the hierarchy created around this faith. The Church is like a shell that was built around the turtle that is the faith/belief/god - and sometimes, when the shell becomes too big and too heavy or too unfit for the creature it hosts, it smothers, hurts and kills the faith/belief/god, until there is only the shell. And people stop referring to the turtle, and only speak and interact with the shell.

This is the perfect explanation of how Jesus only preached peace and love and friendship and forgiveness, and its priests later invented the Inquisition and caused the witch-hunts.

#christianity #religion #christian history #christian religion #catholicism #catholic religion #folk-christianity #christian mythology

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angel-of-unrest · 2 months

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If the afterlife isn't like Helles Belles by Jaysea I'm going to be absolutely devastated

I need to beat the shit out of rapists and corrupt pastors and I need to either fuck a hot succubus or become one

#AND LILITH #I want to meet lilith #and tell her how much I love her #helles belles #sea.ya.later #religious trauma #exvangelical #religious deconstruction #christian religion #ex christian

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pastortomsteers · 4 days

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The Third Sunday of Easter

April 14, 2024

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

Lutheran Service Book

Divine Service III – Pages 184-202

OPENING HYMNN: 475 “Good Christian Friends, Rejoice and Sing”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwrOot61ETc

Pastor: Halleluiah, Christ is risen!

Congregation: He is risen indeed. Halleluiah!

The Introit:

Psalm 133

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

The Salutation – Pastor: The Lord be with you. Congregation: And also with you.

Collect Prayer:

O God, through the sacrifice of Your Son

You raised up the fallen world.

Through His death and resurrection,

He has earned us eternal life.

Grant that on our walk through this life we bear witness to our Saviour;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Our Bible Readings:

First Reading – Acts 2:14a, 36-42

Psalm 116, verses 1-14

Epistle Reading – 1st Peter 1:17-25

(This week we use the text from Luke on the Emmaus disciples. The three-year lectionary Gospel passage today is Luke’s account of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples, which we read of last week in John 20:19-31. The one-year lectionary text for today is the three-year lectionary Gospel passage for next Sunday, which we will have as our reading on April 21st.)

Gospel Reading – Luke 24:13-35

THE APOSTLES’ CREED – Page 192

HYMN OF THE DAY: 476 “Who Are You Who Walk in Sorrow”

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THE SERMON –

This road we call life is, at times, a difficult one.

We can feel alone, and even be led to despair, over hardship, disappointment, and loss.

The things we face in this world can cloud our vision, especially of the things of God.

We can become blind and forgetful of what God has said to us, and promised.

It was this way with two disciples of Jesus on the afternoon of the first Easter.

They were walking towards a town called Emmaus.

For some Christians, the Easter Gospel could very well begin with the words, “A long time ago in a place far away.”

Or in other words they’ve lost a personal connection to the resurrection.

For them it only has a past and future significance, but no present, every day value.

When life takes a downward turn, as it does from time to time, they don’t feel the presence of their Saviour, but are lost in the griefs of the day.

And they may try to fill this perceived void, what they feel is an absence of God, with a personal ‘works righteousness.’

Not seeing their Lord, not seeing the Gospel, they try to fill the emptiness with the Law of God.

What they say in effect is that while Christ is gone and we’re left to our own devices here’s what you need to do.

And it’s an attempt to fill the empty tomb of Jesus with a false belief that we must be perfect before Christ will reappear to us.

But this is what makes us as a Church, as Biblical Lutheran followers of Christ, different.

Because we not only celebrate a past event – the resurrection.

We don’t just say, ‘Christ is Risen,’ and gone back to heaven, and one day we’ll see Him again.

No, we celebrate the living, triumphant Jesus Christ.

As the Church we celebrate the marriage feast of the Bridegroom who laid down His life for us and in a very real and present way, is with us today: in Spirit, in His Holy Word, and in His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper.

Consider the Gospel account in today’s reading.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus knew the Scriptures.

But they hadn’t really taken them in, they hadn’t truly understood them.

Because they didn’t see Jesus in them from start to finish.

And at first, they don’t see Christ in front of them on that road.

Physical sight alone, is not enough to recognize who Christ is.

Human reason is not sufficient to recognize Jesus as the Risen Saviour.

Christ had directly told the disciples He would die and rise again on the third day.

But until He appeared to them, they didn’t believe.

No, our eyes and ears must be opened by God Himself.

It took God’s only Son, Jesus to reveal His presence.

The hearts of the Emmaus disciples burned with joy as they understood the Scriptures when explained by Christ.

Here is one of many places where Jesus tells us how to interpret the Bible correctly.

Jesus tells us that if you do not see the Bible as God’s Word and see Him throughout it you get lost on the road; you won’t see Christ even when He’s right in front of you.

As Lutherans we believe that from the very first verses of Moses through to the prophets and all Scripture, God’s Holy Word is about Jesus.

He’s there in the Garden of Eden in God’s promise that a Saviour would come.

He’s present throughout the Old Testament, as well as the New.

It’s all about our Saviour, for us.

When Jesus is the key to scripture the Bible is not a tangled dead-end road.

When Jesus is the key to scripture, we understand God’s Law is a mirror that shows us our sin and a guide for us, but not the means of salvation.

Jesus used the scriptures to reassure the grieving, despairing Emmaus disciples.

They thought they’d been left alone.

But Christ shows them the crucifixion was not the end of the dreams and hopes of His followers.

The cross was part of the plan of redemption, of real freedom for every nation, every human being.

Christ explained that the cross was the instrument of salvation in paying our sin debt.

If there was no crucifixion, there would be no resurrection, for Jesus, or us.

Perhaps one of the best statements on this comes from the end of last week’s Gospel reading, in John, Chapter 20 (verses 30-31), when the Apostle wrote:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, but these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

But for the Emmaus disciples until Christ took the bread and blessed it, as He did on the night of the Last Supper, that their eyes of faith were opened.

It took Christ Himself to open their eyes and minds, to accept that their living Saviour was there with them.

It’s the same for us.

When He instituted the Lord’s Supper Christ told us, ‘As often as you do this remember me, remember what I’ve said, remember what it means – He gave them the bread and said, “this is my body.”

He gave them the wine and said, “This is my blood shed for You for the remission of sins.”

Remember that in this Sacrament Christ is saying I remain with you, forgiving you.

And so, on this evening of Easter, three days after the crucifixion, the risen Lord

is with His disciples again.

He reveals Himself in the breaking of the bread, then vanished from their sight.

Notice that John doesn’t write Christ was no longer with them, but just that they could no longer see Him.

He was still, truly with them, in Spirit.

He had told them again, how he would remain to be with us.

Brothers and sisters, today, through the eyes of faith, we see Jesus with us again in His Holy Word, and will see Him in His Sacrament as we come to the altar for Communion.

We are not alone.

We have not been left as orphans.

Christ said, ‘lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world.’

This is the joy of Easter.

It’s not only a commemoration, but a true celebration of His resurrection and current presence with us.

In churches that do not honour the Lord’s Supper, they behave as though only moral perfection will earn you a ticket to see Christ again.

In churches that have gone back to the way of the Pharisees in seeing the Law as a way of self-justification they cannot see the risen, and forgiving Saviour with them.

But Christ came to fulfill the Law in a way we can’t, and promises to be with believing Christians, forgiving us, imperfect though we are.

And although the difficulties on the road of life are still there, the end for us isn’t death.

As the Bible says, ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

Jesus is with us not only on Ester Sunday but in every ordinary day, in every pain and sorrow, and whenever we gather together in worship.

Our prayers are not long-distance letters but heard instantly by the ever-present God who loves us and wants to hear from us, wants to reassure, and comfort us.

The Emmaus disciples had been on a long walk when they arrived at their destination and sat down with Jesus.

But when they realized He was with them, they forgot their weariness, they forgot the late hour, and got up and walked back to Jerusalem.

They found the other disciples and told them they’d seen Jesus.

May God grant you the opened eyes and ears of faith to always recognize that Your Saviour is with you.

And may that knowledge, joy, and peace, be with you, now, and forever.

Amen.

THE PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH

THE SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT

P: Blessed are You O Lord, our God, king of the universe, for you have had mercy on us and given Your only-begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

C: We give You thanks Father for the redemption You have prepared for us through Jesus Christ. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may faithfully take communion and receive the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation that come from the body and blood of Christ.

P: Father, hear us as we pray as Jesus taught us.

LORD’S PRAYER

C: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Preface

P: The Lord be with you.

C: And also with you.

P: Lift up your hearts.

C: We lift them to the Lord.

P: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

C: It is right to give Him thanks and praise.

P: It is truly meet, right, and salutary, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to you, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty and Everlasting God. For in the mystery of the Word made flesh, You have given us a new revelation of Your glory; that seeing You in the Person of Your Son, we may be drawn to the love of those things which are not seen.

The Words of Our Saviour

Instituting The Lord`s Supper – Page 197

P: The peace of the Lord be with you always.

C: Amen.

Lamb of God (Agnus Dei)

P: Lamb of God You take away the sin of the world,

C: Have mercy on us.

P: Lamb of God You take away the sin of the world,

C: Have mercy on us.

P: Lamb of God You take away the sin of the world,

C: Grant us peace.

The Distribution

(Our hymn during distribution is 627 “Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Saviour”)

Post Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201 of our Hymnal

Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201

Benediction (stand) Page 202

Our Closing Hymn: 879 “Stay with Us”

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#christian religion #lutheran #christian #faith #jesus #salvation #bible #evangelism #holy spirit #religious art #Youtube

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jesuschristtheprinceofpeace · 10 months

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TW: Self harm and suicide

I have often struggled with thoughts of self harm and suicidal ideation. It’s been a reoccurring experience for over ten years of my life and it feels like it’s the battleground I’m always gearing up to tackle. I also apologise if in this moment I didn’t really understand how to hide posts on the Tumblr mobile app, I just need to get this off my chest.

The thoughts of doing something harmful keep on coming and trying to wear me down. I cling to the cross and Jesus, He is my Saviour and my strength. I am so thankful for Christ. Even with my thankfulness, I get these feelings of temptation and intrusive thoughts. I know it is not sin that causes them, it is an illness and, even though I haven’t self harmed in a long time, the self harm thoughts are really part of an addictive behaviour. These thoughts have been bombarding me recently. I feel like my grip on faith and the cross is weakening and I don’t want that. Christ is my hope. Grace is my salvation.

I ask for prayers for me but also for others who face the battle of depression. Lift us up in your prayers 🙏🏻 God loves us, I know even in my pit of despair, so pleas help struggling folk feel that love.

#christian #christianity #jesus #christ #god #jesus christ #faith #prayer #bible #sin #love #pray #prayer request #the cross #grace #sinner #christian faith #christian religion #christian prayer

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funbearer · 10 months

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#God #christian #christian inspiration #christian motivation #christian religion #christian faith #christianity #amen

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porcelainhaert · 6 months

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୨୧ God is within her, she will not fail"

- Pslam 46:5

#christianity #christian #christian religion #christian blog #dolletecore #dollette #christian art #jesus christ #jesus #christian faith #praying #christian veiling

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foreverpraying · 8 months

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Source of picture: https://pierangelis.tumblr.com

"Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me." Psalm 30:2

#Lord #my God #I called to you #quotes #St. Benedict #Psalm 30:2 #God #Jesus #Christ #Jesus Christ #Father #Son #Holy Spirit #Holy Trinity #christian religion #faith #hope #love #stress reliever

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i-bring-crack · 1 year

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Angel & Demon Headcanons.

Lucifer was once the angel of Love, bc while all other angels have a lot of responsibilities, none of the angels have been given the title of "Angel of love" Instead there is God who delivers love and is love... which actually would make the theory that "Lucifer was once the angel of Love" make more sense because he was the closest one to perfection, that being God, and no other love can compare to that of God. So no other love could compare to the Love of God, not even the angel said to be so. Yes I know Hanael/Anael is considered as the star of love, but that's actually in the Longfellow's work The Golden Legend. And while there is Mihr considered as an angel of friendship and love, he will be placed in Persian Lore.

ADDING ON onto the theory that Lucifer was once the angel of Love, it could also be used to explain Raphael's association with love too. At the beginning Lucifer was one of the chief angels, or at least powerful since he managed to instigate a third of the angels to fall, and after his fall there probably needed to be another angel that substituted his title and rank, which is why despite Rephael being considered as mostly a healer, he is also sometimes associated with other things like love and science.

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For Raphael, I can't help but consider him as this geeky kind of angel that loves invetning things and screwing with the creation of physics, he is the sole reason why you need letters in math, he was probably present during the double slit experiment and thought "You know what would be a fun way to make >:)))"

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On the other hand I think Raphael also loves his title as an(other) angel of Love. Considering his enemy is also the demon of lust Asmodeus, they are likely in a constant battle between whenever or not having kinks is good or bad.

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Asmodeus is a yandere.

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Lucifer(fallen Satan) has not only daddy issues but also mommy issues. Although it would be cool to see Mary trying to handle Lucifer on his own, seeing that she is the most purest being, just like Eve once was. Flashbacks to that tree in the garden?

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The personality of Azrael is either this happy go lucky kind of guide trying to help people accept death as much as they can until they reach the gates, or this tired and cold like angel whom for some reason is like a calm wave that will not try to elevate nor demoralize your mood, only walk with you as you begin to accept death.

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Either way one definite trait that Azrael will seem to have is this aura of calming down others, letting your soul get over all the fears of life and send you into a waking slumber, the one you needed ever since you where born into the world.

There is this double duality which I really like about demons and angels that doesn't get talked about a lot. That regarding the more ancient books or the Old Testament, Angels and Demons aren't always just always doing good or bad things. Angels, at least in the book of Tobias and wth Abraham's visit by the angels can be seen to lie or misguide the people to think they are humans. In the book of Job they can even go against God's choices saying that those humans[Job] aren't what god thinks. If we include the Apocrypha then Enoch is an easy reference that they can be tempted or that even the Lord does not trust them.

Another temptation that is also shown is with Harut and Marut, two angels that decided to reveal the name of God back at their wives and get punished because of that. Meanwhile there are demons like Asmodeus who recite verses from the book of Moses in the Testament of Solomon, and even follow it to an extent, they can pass through heaven and earth, they can even love and come to regret, as the nephilim and watchers[fallen angels] have come to ask Enoch to help them, as seen during the fight of the watchers when God tells his angels to supress the watchers and see just how their beloved children will get killed in front of their eyes. Freaking twisted i know.

There are also the Ginns, mostly seen and made like evil entities, though they can also be good. Anyways it shows that there is no single duality for them, in the end the angels, despite doing bad things for god, they do it for god who is good, meanwhile as much as demons try to do good things, they will always be making bad things, and it isnt because they reject god, thats partly the case, its that their intentions will always be bad no matter the actions they make.

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I absolutely love the idea that the Divine Comedy did— no, not that— I mean the concept of God taking care of Eden waiting for humans to come back one day. I'm crying, and taking this as headcanon. Imma just...

#angels #demons #angeology #demonology #christian religion #azrael #angel lore #angel of love #lucifer #satan #raphael #apocryphal #christian lore

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