From out of a tomb, a womb, made of Earth, a “New Adam” has arisen! One who is the True Image of the Living God! The One who is the True Steward of Creation!
With truth and justice He serves and protects that which God has placed in His hands.
Cosmos redeemed! Hope restored!
The Promise kept!
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened. Luke 24:1-12 NRSV.
May we all hope in the reality that Messiah Jesus has risen indeed!
Yesterday. The dreams of a nation died. We hoped, Oh, how we hoped, that this time… Well, we were wrong.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob PROMISED! He promised Abraham that one day one of his descendants would come. That person would be raised up by GOD alone! That person would lead God’s own people, Israel in God’s own Glory! And, Israel would be a blessing to the whole world!
We listened to him. We followed him.
“He is the One that was Promised!” some said. One of us even said that He was the Messiah, our hoped for deliverer. The Person that would lead Israel to freedom! This One would end our domination by foreigners and their gods. You should have seen all of the people just a few days ago! Lining the road into the Holy City! Proclaiming Him as the One.
But, now?
He lays in a tomb of cold stone. Dead. As are all of our hopes.
Yet, the story says that God, after finishing all of the work of creation Rested on the seventh day. The Sabbath.
That’s today. Grim irony. Our would be Messiah rests on this day. Was His work finished?
Today people who follow Jesus remember His death. Arrested the night before and subjected to a sham trial, Jesus was turned over to the Roman authorities and charged with sedition. The Romans accepted the charge and proceeded to mete out Roman justice. Jesus was stripped, beaten, mocked, spit upon, and ultimately crucified.
Israel’s Messiah.
Crucified.
Scandalous!
Soon after these events, and Jesus’ subsequent resurrection and glorification, people needed to understand what had happened. They thought and studied and prayed. They discussed and reasoned and argued.
They were all certain that something significant had taken place. But, were unsure of exactly what that was.
It wasn’t long before the early followers of Jesus saw in His death a parallel to an event that had taken place more than a millennium earlier. Jesus, they deduced, was God’s own Passover Lamb offered so that Sin and Death might no longer have a hold on the Creation. It was through Jesus’ own blood that God was proven faithful to the covenant that God made with Abraham. That covenant was that God, through Abraham’s lineage, would bless the whole Cosmos. God would, in effect, reverse the curse that had hung over humanity from the very beginning.
I know that I’m not giving the best or most concise view of what took place on that hill 2,000 years ago. That’s mostly because I simply don’t understand it myself.
Why did Jesus need to die?
Was it because of MY sins? Was it because of some personified thing called Sin? The writer of Genesis stated that when God confronted Cain about his anger God told Cain that Sin was crouching outside his door. But, that Cain could overcome that. If Cain could overcome Sin, then why did Jesus need to die?
If people who don’t know Jesus or Israel’s God can live upright and moral lives apart from God, why did Jesus need to die?
If Indigenous cultures contain no concept of Sin and live quite happily, why did Jesus need to die?
I know that common theological understandings say something like the blood of Jesus cleanses us. That it makes us whole. That, somehow, the blood makes peace between God and the Cosmos.
Ok. How? Why was that necessary? What actually took place?
The answers that I have heard don’t ring true to me.
Yeah, some folks say I ask too many questions. I should just shut up and accept what people way smarter than I am have to say.
Uh, no. That’s never gonna happen. I will continue to ask. I will continue to seek. I will continue to knock on the door.
Maybe, just maybe, one day a light will flash in my brain and I’ll finally get it. Maybe not.
But, that’s ok. Because whatever actually took place in the Cosmos on that day that we remember today, I will still follow Jesus. I will…
Some of you may be wondering why I have suddenly gone off on some weird theological tangent. “Why is he getting so worked up over something like this? It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the real world right now!”
I get that. It does appear that I’m taking something that is not relevant pretty damned seriously. Especially, something that I don’t really have any control over. I mean, who am I to presume that my tiny brain and even tinier voice could have any impact on something as deeply entrenched as Western Christianity.
And, you would be right!
My voice is like a whisper in a hurricane.
That doesn’t give me a pass, though. For, at this particular moment in time the Voice in my heart speaks loud enough. That Voice compels me to speak. If only to one other person.
So, back to the question I asked. Why does this call for a new Reformation get me worked up? Why should I, or anyone, care?
I’m glad that you asked that question!
I believe with all of my heart that the Faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah and the trust that Paul, Peter, and all the rest of the nascent Way of Jesus was misunderstood by those who followed them. Particularly, those who, I’m sure in good faith, tried to reconcile a specifically Jewish narrative with the prevailing Hellenistic world. The introduction of the philosophies of Greece, particularly Aristotle and Plato, in effect co-opted Israel’s story and planted it firmly in soil that was unable to sustain the growth that Jesus, Paul, et al had begun.
Ok. So what?
In the Greek mind, as I wrote yesterday, the rich tapestry that was Israel’s story was reduced to binaries. Good/Bad; Black/White; Us/Them. Paul’s theology was likewise reduced to fit this worldview. What had been a beautiful Gospel of hope in the God of Abraham to reconcile the Cosmos was turned into a Frankenstein’s monster of Greek pieces with Biblical language used to justify the creation of such an aberration.
The result?
A dualism that allowed theologians to find in the Scriptures a way for humans to gain entry into some Ideal, Spiritual realm called “Heaven”. While at the same time creating a necessary antithesis to this called “Hell.”
The Gospel, and the Church at Large, became a means by which humans could receive salvation for their Immortal Souls. From there it was a very short step to compelling people to assent to some Church prescribed proposition that would somehow, (magically?), insure that they would one day walk with God in heavenly places while avoiding the Inferno that awaited Everyone Else.
Today, that’s pretty much the same false gospel that churches foist on unsuspecting people.
What? You want proof?
Look around! So called ‘evangelists’ standing with bullhorns on college campuses yelling at people to Repent or Burn! Evangelical groups standing at the entrance to clinics that offer Women’s Health care abusing women who may be at the most vulnerable time of their lives. People carrying signs outside of funeral homes that carry the message, “Death to Fags!” Scamvangelists like Paula White who is a counselor to donald trump. Hate mongers like Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham who speak of God’s love out one side of their mouths while proclaiming eternal hellfire for anyone who doesn’t buy into their particular form of religious belief. Bircher and false prophey Tim LaHaye. Pseudo-Historian and christian nationalist David Barton. The dangerous heresy of the Seven Mountains. The damnable blasphemy that states the God. Hates. Your. Guts. Indigenous Genocide. Manifest Destiny. The wholesale destruction of our environment by people who believe, (Falsely), that God has mandated that humans subdue and use, (re. ‘Exploit’), the environment. The fact that I cannot walk into any Evangelical church without anxiety rearing up in my chest and mind. How about that thousands and thousands of people who have been abused by those who preach such a hateful message?
Need I continue? I surely can.
All of this…ALL OF THIS…is the result of humans who were deceived into believing a false gospel.
So, I write and I speak.
Do I claim to have all the answers to these issues?
Oh, hell no!
But, I do know a fake when I see it. And, the Western Church, by and large, supports and acclaims a false gospel. The true Gospel is one that reveals God’s love, not only for humans, but for the entire Cosmos. The true Gospel has the power to reconcile, not divide. Paul wrote that in Messiah Jesus there are no walls to separate. There is neither Jew nor Greek; Free nor Slave; Female nor Male. We can extrapolate this to say that there is neither Black nor White; Gay nor Straight; Republican nor Democrat.
The bastardization of the Gospel cannot say any of those things. It sole purpose is to divide. There is Saved and Damned; Believer and Pagan; Us and Them.
May that Gospel be damned!
So, yeah. I’m worked up about this. It’s of paramount importance to me to speak against these abuses and Blasphemies. Yeah. I said it. The “B” word. That’s what that false gospel truly is.
So, there it is. And, I will continue to speak out. At least as long as I must. If that bothers you, well ok. But, not sorry. If you have similar thoughts and feelings, please share this. Perhaps our collective voices may amplify these abuses until people begin to notice.
I think that I wrote somewhere else that during this time of healing and life changes that come with retirement, my brain has been awash in “stuff.” Thoughts and ideas flit about like Lake Erie midges gathering above the trees in June. Millions of them creating an undulating cloud and an eerie whine as they search for a mate in the few hours of life granted to them.
Such, it seems, are the clouds of thoughts in my head. And, just as difficult to grasp.
There are, however, moments when something breaks away from the cloud and comes closer for a better look. One of these has been a thought that I have considered and wrestled with for the better share of the last year. That is the question: “Who are You really…God?”
I think that is the correct way to frame my inquiry. I’m not interested in knowing about God. As in, what is God like or what are the attributes of God. Those questions are for the systematic theologians. And, if you know me at all, I have no interest in systems. They always fall short of whatever aim the theologian intends. And, they always only provide that theologian’s opinion. For me, that’s so much useless information.
Really, I think that any question that doesn’t deal with the “Who” issue is always going to fall short of the mark.
And, I believe wholeheartedly that the religious forms that have developed since about the 3rd or 4th century have completely missed this. As far back as Origen the tendency of theologians has been to try to explain what happened in the 1st century through the lens of Hellenistic philosophy. After all, that was the natural habitat for all of Greek culture. The consequence of this was, and is, a Christianity that is steeped in the world of Neo-Platonism. (I have mentioned this in previous posts.)
This influence, I believe, has skewed the story of Jesus and the early church in a very unhelpful and unhealthy direction. From Augustine through the Patristic Period, Greek philosophy shaped and molded what we now see as a deeply flawed and needy Church. Luther and Calvin received this notion from the Fathers and, building on a flawed foundation, compounded many of the errors and misconceptions inherited from that earlier time.
This led me to my last post pointing out a need for a new Reformation.
So, why do I think like this? Can’t I just accept that people who were smarter than me and who wrestled with all of this for centuries have created a building that must stand, no matter what?
In a word… No.
I question things. I ask and ask and ask. Sometimes I come up with plausible answers. Most of the time, I just end up with more questions.
In this case, though, I need to look back a few years. Even before I started seminary I wondered about some things. One of those things was the unquestioning acceptance of how a human is put together. In the Western Church a person is said to be made up of a body and a spirit. Sometimes a third component, a soul, is thrown into the mix. In this concept, at least in the Evangelical world that I once inhabited, the body was viewed as flesh. It followed it’s appetites and those appetites always led to a bad place. In a not so uncommon view, the body/flesh was, is, and always will be fraught with evil. On the other hand, the spirit is something that is dormant in most people. It’s only when God breathes life into it does it spring back to life and works to draw the person into a closer relationship with God. So, the spirit is a good thing. What most people don’t see in this is that it is completely Platonic. It pits the lesser, the body, against the ultimate, the spirit. It is also sot through and through with what is known as Gnosticism. Again, the physical is evil and the spiritual is good.
Both of these ideas are, quite simply, mistaken. They have no basis in Scripture nor the heritage from which the Church has its roots.
I have believe since those early days when I began to ask these questions that everything that we can know about God, Jesus, the Spirit, or the Biblical text comes to us from the story of Israel and Israel’s God. So, why didn’t the Church search for its identity there? As a quick example to think about… The illustration I shared above about the way a person is made up of various and disparate parts would have been completely unrecognizable to someone in 1st century Judaism. In the Scriptures, this person would say, a person is a single, living soul. Period. There is no dividing into parts. For these early theologians in the Greek world, the thoughts of anyone from the backwaters of Palestine would have been incomprehensible and ignored. (Of course, the defense could be raised that they were simply doing theology and trying to make sense of God in their own context. An admirable pursuit. But, that will always render a qualified and relative answer that must be taken with a large chunk of salt.)
This was the beginning of my search for the Who is God question. Because, if we don’t even know anything about Who is a Human, how can we know anything about God? If we can’t get the questions right, we will never come close to finding answers.
This has been the focus of much of my prayer, contemplation, and study for the last year. Of course, the question that I ask can not be adequately answered by anyone. We can, however, make certain deductions and come to some conclusions that may help to carry the conversation forward.
And, that might just shed some light on where God may be directing God’s people as we muddle our way forward. I hope so, anyway.
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time you know that I am absolutely passionate about the Bible. I love reading it and studying it. Mostly because of the huge impact that this little collection of myths and stories has had on the history of the world. I think that it is quite safe to say that no other single source has driven so much of our culture and art, as well as our treatment of one another and the world itself, as the Christian scriptures.
So, what animates my desire is to look with open eyes and listen with an open heart to find out what these ancient texts may really say to us in the 21st century. How may they inform our own lives and culture? And, perhaps more importantly, how can we faithfully critique the beliefs and understandings of those who have engaged them in the past?
As I look around at the way that religion in general and the Christian view in particular, I see a lot of chaos. There is a tectonic fault that has appeared over the centuries that threatens to send a temblor of unprecedented magnitude through the culture. The source for this threat, I believe, is in how we seem to accept former understandings and interpretations today as if they were, in fact, gospel truth. Spoiler alert: They’re not.
While I could go back to the 2nd and third centuries to show how things began to come off of the rails, today I just want to focus on a slice of history. About 500 years ago there was another tectonic shift in theological understanding. Although the shift began in the 15th century, it came to fruition in the Reformation of the 16th. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and a bit later Thomas Cranmer, revolted against the abuses of the Medieval Roman Church. And, rightly so. Change was desperately needed. These people rethought what it meant to follow Jesus more authentically than what the Church of Rome allowed. As far as I’m concerned, the Reformation was a good thing.
FOR THAT TIME!!!
However, what was good in 1520 is not necessarily good in 2020.
That brings me back to where I started today. So much of the Church, especially the Protestant variety, still holds to the ideas and reflections of those 500 year old white guys. And, they do so uncritically. I think that is a really, really bad thing to do. I just need to look around at all of the abuses, terror, and genocide that has been inflicted on people in the name of this Old Time Religion to know that it is indeed flawed.
One of my professors in seminary mentioned that she thought that, perhaps, we were ripe for a new Reformation.
I agree. With my whole heart, I AGREE!
We have more information and scholarship available to us than those old reformers had. We can now put Jesus and Paul and Peter and the rest into a context that must inform the way that we view the ancient texts that they, and many, many others, were responsible for creating. Earlier theologians, like those mentioned above, but also going back through Aquinas and Augustine and others, did not have the resources that we do today. They wrestled with the texts in a context where Neo-Platonism and the philosophy of Aristotle were used to try and make sense of a Bible that was created by people who lived and breathed a completely different worldview. It was a lot like how we say that they were comparing apples to grapefruit. Not gonna be a good fit no matter how you slice it.
Today’s scholarship has begun to ask better questions of the texts. And, subsequently, has been able to offer better interpretations to us.
As I lead Bible studies, I always try to hammer home the idea that Context is Everything. Scholars over that last few decades have been able to provide this context for us. The information available enables us, that’s you and me, to view the words of of the Bible with a more critical eye. We can better understand who wrote the texts. To whom were they written. Why did the writer record these specific words to these particular readers? This IS Context! This IS what we need to get a better grasp on what these stories and letters and poems and myths might give us something that is useful for us. Now. In this Place. In our Culture.
What I am finding out is that the Church is, indeed, in need of Reformation. The Church needs to step up and do the same hard work that those earlier reformers did. We must reflect theologically on these Ancient Texts so that they can be, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote, “For the word of God is livingand active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” If the Word of God is, in fact, living, then we must seek to revive it in our day.
Or else, it will atrophy and die.
And, that death will take us down a road that I don’t think we want to. Especially, since many churches in our culture are already showing us where that road leads.
Today is Palm Sunday. This day marks the beginning of the holiest week in the Christian calendar. Today commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Less than a week later, we will remember His betrayal and crucifixion. What began on such an exciting day in which Jesus was hailed as the King of the Jews, that signaled to the people living in occupied Palestine that all of the promises of God about their deliverance were finally going to be answered, fell so far off the rails in a matter of days.
It seems that the old saying about, ‘the best laid plans…’ is all too accurate.
But, as the story continues, all is not lost. God will get the final Word and Jesus will be exalted above every other.
As I reflect on the events of this week as we remember all that happened way back when, my thoughts wander to the final result of all of this. The Exalted Messiah Jesus was the fruition of God’s plan for humanity from the very beginning. God had commissioned humankind to partner with the Divine purpose to be stewards and care takers of the world in which we live. God declared this arrangement to be ‘Very Good.’ Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was the final proof that God’s plan was finally enacted. And, through Jesus, humanity can both know God and be known by God. We have been given the means to become a community of people who are empowered by God to be light in darkness and to give hope to the hopeless. It’s our job description as God’s eikons; God’s image-bearers to follow in Jesus’ footsteps in order to fulfill God’s purpose here and now.
The reason this all came to mind today is because we appear to be fractured at this moment in time. Our collective reaction to the current health crisis has forced us to remain separate from one another. From outward appearances it would seem that our task has suddenly become exponentially more difficult, if not impossible.
But, (you know there’s always a ‘but’), this morning I logged into the Facebook live feed of a service from the church that I attend. There was no congregation present to process waving palm fronds. We had no sharing of the Eucharist or even a friendly glance from others. We were all in our own shelters weathering this storm. Yet, we shared in a few moments of prayer and reading. We used the same words and the same texts. We were, in effect, together while apart. Yeah, that seems contradictory and paradoxical. Well, it is, actually. One of the things about following Jesus is that our lives are mostly spent IN the paradox. In the “Now,” but “Not Yet.” In the Completion of the story, yet still on page one.
So, together we shared in the Communion of Saints as we, unified in purpose and spirit, worshiped our God and gave thanks for all that God accomplished during that most important week so many years ago.
May you all experience the unity that is in God. And, may we all realize that, even though we may be separated by ‘social distancing,’ we are still truly inseparable in our shared humanity.
First, I gotta tell you that yesterday was pretty rough. I shared a bit about how beginning this new phase of life was, well, a tad anticlimactic. So, I pretty much slept all day. I do that sometimes when the melancholia shows up to play.
But, here we are! Another day to try again. While I’m still not feeling great, (I’m sure that the fact that my body is still pretty weak isn’t helping), I am up and actually accomplishing things. So, that’s a good thing. Right?
There have been so many thoughts and ideas coursing through my brain over the last month that I have not been able to keep track of them. So, let me just get some of them out there for your consideration.
Many of my thoughts have drifted toward God and what God may desire for me personally. But, also for us as a species in a rather chaotic period. I spoke with one friend yesterday who said that he didn’t know what God was up to. But, God must be up to something Big! I don’t know. I really don’t think so. I wrote in another place that things like illness and disease are simply the product of evolution. They “Happen” because that’s what goes on in our natural world. I’m all for giving God credit when it’s due. But, stating that God is using such things to get our attention or judge sin or whatever cult-du-jour idea you want to use is not only not helpful, but borders on blasphemy. God has always, and ONLY, promised to be Present with us in these times. To that I can bear witness. God has walked with me, mourned with me, felt my pain and anxiety, and held my hand during this time of distress. God will surely continue to do that as we slog our way through the days of coronavirus.
I am a die hard separation of church and state person. While I realize that individuals will carry their worldviews with them wherever they go, including the public square, it is dead wrong for any one person or group to impose their particular beliefs on anyone else. Period. End of discussion. That’s why it really, REALLY, pisses me off when I read and hear about religious organizations that think that quarantine and stay at home orders are for everyone except them. These misguided idiots think that their particular religious group is somehow “Essential” in the same way that grocery stores and pharmacies are. Hey, Numb Nuts! You’re not! They endanger not only those who attend their open services, but all of the other people those folks will come in contact with. If they truly want to embody their so-called love, they will shut their doors until this is all over.
Finally, I want to again thank all of those people who have shared their concern over my health. I really appreciate every one of you. I do hope that I never need to return the sentiment. But, if I do; I will.
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
So goes that old saying. Today is supposed to be different. At least, so I’ve been told. I officially enter the ranks of the Retired.
I don’t know. I feel kind of ambivalent about the whole thing. Maybe cuz of everything else that’s going on. Cancer; surgeries; coronavirus; stay at home orders. This is certainly not how I imagined this day would be.
But, time moves on in spite of what may be happening around us. And, here we are. We made it.
I’m sure that eventually I’ll settle in to a new way of living without a time clock. Maybe I’ll even celebrate! When the restaurants open and we’re once again allowed to gather together.
I don’t know.
Maybe.
Until then, I appreciate the well-wishes from all of you. I hope that we can remain in touch as time moves on.
