So something that I really haven't understood is why easter has so little importance in adventist circles. Often there isn't even a easter themed sermon.
It depends on the church and the pastor, I suppose. Some Adventist pastors do preach crucifixion/resurrection-themed sermons around Easter time, or they might have special musical programs. In general, though, most Adventist churches make nowhere near as big a deal out of Easter as most other Christian churches.
Jon Miller said:
Sometimes there is, but easter day services are pretty much nonexistant.
I am suspicious it is because adventists for some reason often think it is wrong to worship on sunday.
Yes, Easter Sunday services are usually absent in Adventist churches--probably primarily because they don't usually have services on Sundays at all--although I have lived in a few places where they had Easter Sunday sunrise services. Some of the more conservative/traditional Adventists that I know do think that it is wrong to go to church on Sunday, especially Easter Sunday, because they view it as following in the footsteps of Rome and paganism. I didn't grow up in traditional/historic Adventism, so I wasn't raised with that mindset.
Jon Miller said:
Anyways, I missed church saturday, and sunday this week (I was thinking about visiting some nonadventist church on sunday). Mostly because I worked all night thursday and haven't managed to change my schedule back to sleeping at night.
I guess another issue is I missed communion, which is very rare in my church (this is actually the only time I remember hearing about it in over a year? but it is probable that we have it 4 times a year and I have just missed the other occasions). I have no clue why communion is so rare in SDA churches.
Tradition. In the time period when Adventism began, it was common for Protestant churches, especially Methodist churches (the denomination in which Ellen White was raised), in the United States to have communion on a quarterly basis or sometimes monthly, especially when they were on circuits with no pastor there every week. Practices varied, but many people viewed monthly or weekly communion as too frequent. Here is a quote from
a book on American Methodist worship (emphasis added):
Communion every Lord's Day was an impossibility from the outset in America, but denominational leaders expected opportunities to be made for regular reception. . . . Although the elders had the authority to celebrate Communion at any gathering of Methodists, many appeared content to offer the sacrament when requested, occasionally at certain festivals (e.g. Christmas Day or Eve), or at the time it normally was expected. For many Methodists, the quarterly gathering of the societies (and later, churches) on a circuit for business, worship, and fellowship provided the ordinary and sole occasion for Communion. In some of the larger city appointments, the custom established early was that of monthly Communion. . . . The rhythm of quarterly Communions in circuits and "at least once a month in stations" was the officially stated instruction of the Methodist Protestant Church throughout its history.
Some popular writers on the sacrament, such as British Methodist Adam Clarke, whose work was widely read in America, commended reception once a month or once every six weeks as "the proper mean"; he considered weekly "too frequent" and quarterly "too seldom. . . ." Nevertheless, as churches grew from locations on a circuit to congregations with their own resident minister, the ingrained quarterly pattern was preferred both by pastor and people. . . .
A proposal was made in 1888 to see that, where possible, the Supper was observed once every two months, but despite such efforts, no formal legislation on frequency was ever established by that denomination [the Methodist Episcopal Church], even though it implemented and maintained that members could be brought to trial for neglecting the sacrament. . . .
Legislation or not, the annual schedule for the Eucharist was mostly determined locally by pastors, who often were hesitant either to lengthen the service by adding Communion or to shorten the sermon to accommodate it, and by congregations, which might be indifferent to the sacrament or worried that too frequent reception could render Communion less "special." External influences, such as the practices of churches representing other Christian denominations, were also a factor, positively or negatively. Within Methodism as a whole, therefore, the frequency with which the sacrament was received was highly variable: a monthly observance could be held in one of the larger churches in the South, or an annual celebration might be deemed sufficient. Such variability characterized Methodism even at the end of the twentieth century, in spite of the push begun in the early part of the century and continued throughout it for Methodists to hold more frequent celebrations, and ideally to emulate the weekly observances of ancient Christians, the Methodists of Wesley's day, and (increaingly) other Protestant church in North America. (148-149)
While the Methodist Church, along with many other Protestant churches, has moved increasingly toward more frequent monthly or weekly communion, the Adventist Church has, in general, stuck to the quarterly tradition. However, the Bible doesn't specify any required frequency, which is probably why there has been so much variability in the practices of different Protestant churches.
Jon Miller said:
Since I didn't go to church I read about Christ's death and the empty tomb in Mark as well as some other scripture.
JM
Sounds like a good way to celebrate Easter.
