I enjoy every holiday off from work like everyone else does. Even our fellow worker who is Jehovah's Witness enjoys having Christmas off while not actually celebrating Christmas. But when the people I work with ask me about how Seventh-day Adventists celebrate Easter I answer that we don't formally celebrate Easter. We sometimes have an Easter sermon but any Easter celebrations in our church are informal and irregular.

I always then go on to say that we celebrate Easter instead through baptism. Death and Rebirth! They of course ask how we baptise and while one other employee also practices baptism by immersion most of them find dunking a bit of a stretch.

I find it interesting that while most of Christianity celebrates Easter that they worship on Friday and on Sunday. But most Christians go on to work and play and shop on the day that Jesus rested. Then entire symbolism is lost entirely. The celebration surrounds the Sabbath but entirely ignores the Sabbath.

I told my fellow workers that since our services are broadcast on local cable television that I wouldn't be suprised if our paster presented an Easter sermon. And this year at least we certainly were celebrating Easter because we had baptisms scheduled. Well, we didn't have that Easter sermon but we did enjoy celebrating the resurrection when seven of our church schools students were baptised. I'm glad that we celebrate the new life that we can have by the virtue of Jesus's self-sacrifice and resurrection. And I'm especially glad that as Seventh-day Adventists we celebrate this resurrection through the new life that new members take on during baptism and the renewal of life that the rest of us affirm at this special event.

I'm glad that when friends ask me about whether or not we celebrate Easter that I can witness by saying "no, but yes". That we celebrate through acceptance of Christ's gift of salvation through changes in lives and not through formalities once a year on a day that's not even the Sabbath. And no, I don't witness about the Sabbath when asked about Easter because they already know about my commitment to the Sabbath.

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