Sabahan Easter

Yes, I know that Easter was over a week ago, but there was a great deal that I felt I needed to process and think about before I posted about celebrating in Sabah.  You see, celebrations were so different than anything I’d experienced that all I could do was really observe before coming to any conclusions.  This year made me realize the things that I really value about the way I’ve celebrated Easter in the past, but I gave me a great deal of insight into the faith and beliefs of those in my community. 

Most noticeable was the absence of the observance of Lent.  I do know many people who do not observe Lent in the US, but growing up Lutheran, this is something that has been a part of my life as long as I can remember.  There’s always been that emphasis to reflect on the need for forgiveness and follow Jesus’ journey to the cross.  In Sabah, many people didn’t know what Lent was and those who had heard of it said it was ‘a Catholic thing.’  Ok, so I didn’t give it too much thought early on and decided to see what would happen.

As Holy Week rolled around we didn’t observe Palm Sunday or Maundy Thursday.  And though we had a prayer service on Good Friday, but there was still no recognition or emphasis on Jesus’ journey to the cross and his death.  This seemed to bother me more than I thought it would.  If Jesus didn’t die on the cross, there would be no Easter miracle to celebrate. All my life observing this meant being able to appreciate Easter more deeply.  I was still perplexed, but decided to just keep watching and try to keep an open mind.  More importantly, I tried to remind myself that just because I was really missing the observances back home, I really didn’t need to let that influence what I thought about Sabahan Easter.

So Easter came and aside from having communion and a baptism, it was really like every other church service.  There really wasn’t much extra celebration.  Again, very different from what I was used to.  For about a week the questions still swirled in my head, why wasn’t there more.  But as I continued to go about the week, I started realizing why.  Here in Sabah, it seems that how people share what they have, help one another, and live out their Christian faith is more important than how they celebrate it.  Living every day is a response to Jesus’ death and resurrection and therefore is an Easter Celebrations.  There have been moments, little Easters you could say, throughout all my days.  There have been those times when things look doubtful and I don’t know how I’m going to get through, but someone comes along to help make the seemingly impossible possible and in the end, it’s a miracle.   So if Easter seems a little everyday-ish here, maybe that’s ok.  Why not celebrate every day?