Why, you may ask, do Christians call the Sunday Jesus rose from the dead “Easter”? Good question. Apparently Christians are capable of getting their knickers in a knot about this: the word itself derives from an old English word, “Eostre,” which is the name of a pre-Christian deity. What? Were those rascally medievals trying to […]
Vocabulary Lesson: “Lent,” “Ash Wednesday”
Today is “Ash Wednesday,” the beginning of the most serious season in the Church’s year: the forty days, not counting Sundays, leading up to Easter. We call the season “Lent.” For non-native speakers of Christianity, here are a couple of vocabulary lessons: Lesson 1: “Lent” comes from a medieval English word meaning “Spring,” from source […]
Yes, Children, There Is a Santa Claus. Really.
When I was a pastor, one Sunday in Advent I called the kids forward for the children’s sermon. I told my three-to-seven-year-old congregation Today I’m going to tell you the truth about Santa Claus. Usually the kids were pretty wriggly. This time the parents were squirming. Here is what I told them. Long, long ago, […]
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