{"id":432,"date":"2016-05-02T13:11:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T20:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2017-07-07T17:38:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T00:38:05","slug":"super-bowl-sunday-for-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/02\/super-bowl-sunday-for-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl Sunday for Christians!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nToday is Super Bowl Sunday for Christians! Yup, it\u2019s Easter. The day when the multitudes of people, believers and pseudo-believers alike will assemble in pretty new clothes and frilly new hats to celebrate\u2026just what are we celebrating? The risen Lord? <\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t we just for this one time be honest with ourselves? Historically, two days ago the ultimate display of human pride was displayed when they\/we murdered God on a cross. No, I\u2019m not going to sanitize this for you. Humanity, believing they\/we knew what was right, determined through malicious intent and devious means arrested, detained, judged, flogged to the point of death and then ceremoniously hung the Son of God upon the most demented torture device ever conceived simply to keep order in the city at a time of heightened unrest.<\/p>\n

Three days later an empty tomb awakens a city which spreads panic throughout the governing body and the people who witnessed the prior mockery. This is the day, today, which we celebrate. Sure we\u2019ll shout praises to a risen Lord, sing anthems to His greatness yet not truly understand the real meaning of today. We won\u2019t relive the panic of suddenly finding out that an innocent victim who they\/we put to death is now alive to confess their\/our guilt. No, we won\u2019t cry out to God to forgive us in our complicity in the travesty of justice. We\u2019ll say a few amens and rush off to the ham banquet which awaits us.<\/p>\n

Why do we truly need to celebrate this day? Forgiveness and mercy. At no time did God respond like us. He could have, and should have, cleaned our clock for what happened. But He didn\u2019t. Having mercy, He forgave just as His Son asked. Certainly Jesus could have rubbed everyone\u2019s nose in the dung of their hypocrisy, but he didn\u2019t. He responded as usual with compassion and love. <\/p>\n

Today is not a celebration of a risen King as much as commemoration that we didn\u2019t truly get what we deserve from that King. However, who we did get, had us along. Go enjoy your ham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Super Bowl Sunday for Christians! Yup, it\u2019s Easter. The day when the multitudes of people, believers and pseudo-believers alike will assemble in pretty new clothes and frilly new hats to celebrate\u2026just what are we celebrating? The risen Lord? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4,6,5],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9","tag-grace","tag-mike-hillebrecht","tag-teaching"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ITDy-6Y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":166,"url":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/07\/schizo-believers\/","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":0},"title":"Schizo-believers","author":"mike","date":"July 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You're nuts; crazy I tell you! How many times have you exclaimed that to someone, or worst yet, thought it about yourself? It speaks to the security that many have which is being attacked by a different, often diametrically opposed thought which they cannot possibly believe themselves embracing and adopting.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2014 Postings"","block_context":{"text":"2014 Postings","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/category\/2014\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikehillebrecht.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/inbaby-hand3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2709,"url":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/10\/what-the-church-cannot-admit\/","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":1},"title":"What the Church Cannot Admit","author":"mike","date":"July 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The institution known as \u201cThe Church\u201d has been around since mankind began worshiping a reality higher than themselves. It spans across the globe in a variety of formats based on cultural biases, but the underlying premise is universal \u2013 man is not responsible for all which comprises the universe. Our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2023 Postings"","block_context":{"text":"2023 Postings","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/category\/2023\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"hand in hand","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikehillebrecht.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/inbaby-hand3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/17\/faithless-believers\/","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":2},"title":"Faithless Believers.","author":"mike","date":"January 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a discussion with a good friend the other day about a posting that I made on Facebook regarding faith. I was granted the opportunity to share what I wrote to my friend as my further response. But I think it might be best to include both postings that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2017 Postings"","block_context":{"text":"2017 Postings","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/category\/2017\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikehillebrecht.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/inbaby-hand3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":559,"url":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/12\/polarity\/","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":3},"title":"Polarity","author":"mike","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It is freaking cold outside! Like someone moved the polar cap to my front door. This posting is not about this phenomenon, but it is about extremes. This nation, if not the world at large, seems to have shifted. Battle line have been drawn, the camps are entrenched behind their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2017 Postings"","block_context":{"text":"2017 Postings","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/category\/2017\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikehillebrecht.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/inbaby-hand3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":116,"url":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/02\/the-equalizer\/","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":4},"title":"The equalizer","author":"mike","date":"July 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You vs me. Us vs them. Competition is all the rage across the globe. It is fashionable to support your team, your company, your school, your community, your church, your country, your way of dressing and a whole host of other choices that are designed to separate you from someone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2014 Postings"","block_context":{"text":"2014 Postings","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/category\/2014\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikehillebrecht.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/inbaby-hand3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":168,"url":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/07\/identity\/","url_meta":{"origin":432,"position":5},"title":"Identity","author":"mike","date":"July 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I want you to read these two statements closely and think about which one you identify with more readily. God is my Father. My Father is God. Yes, at first glance there doesn't appear to be must difference. Same words, just rearranged. Yet there is a difference. The difference in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2014 Postings"","block_context":{"text":"2014 Postings","link":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/category\/2014\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mikehillebrecht.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/inbaby-hand3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikehillebrecht.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}