Over the centuries, an Easter cry has been made by Christians: " Christ is risen.". That proclamation has meant to many people that the body of Jesus was somehow transformed and became a living being again. That miracle is the foundation of many Christian's faith.
Three important messages are here in those three words. First, it is Christ who is risen. Not the body of Jesus the man but the spiritual being, God's offspring. It is Christ the embodiment of God, the carrier of God's presence.
Second, the verb tells us that this is not a historical event but a fact, a declaration. The verb "is" proclaims that something exists. And that something is the spirit of the living God, the Christ.
Third, the statement CHRIST IS RISEN is a personal commitment. The world listens to the Christian who cries it and says "PROVE IT. You claim to be the body of Christ risen. Show us by your actions that the spirit of Christ lives in you. Your actions, your words, your decisions, your acts of love and forgiveness -these alone can justify your cry!"
Yes, crowds of people shouting "Christ is risen" are not convincing. The world looks for that Christ to appear, to be visible in our lives.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Good Samaritan
The most familiar story in the New Testament is about an alienated man doing an extraordinary act of compassion. Jesus concluded the story with a question about being a good neighbor. My ending is different: when the injured man asks the Samaritan why he did this act of mercy, the Samaritan said "I did it so that God might exist."
What the Samaritan did was to transform God from being a distant idea to being a present fact. In that act, the divine dream becomes a reality. The unimaginable turns out to be real.
When we love, God becomes tangible. That is true when we forgive. . . when we work for justice or peace or healing. It is as though God is waiting for us to let Him/Her loose in our lives.
That old question that asks "do believe in the existence of God?" cannot be answered with YES or NO. It can only be answered by enabling your conception of God to act.
Through the ages, theologians have speculated noisily about the nature of God. That continuing debate provides stimulating discussion. Bit if we really mean it when we pray "thy will be done", we are responsible for bringing God's will Into existence. Apart from that action, God is but a concept.
What the Samaritan did was to transform God from being a distant idea to being a present fact. In that act, the divine dream becomes a reality. The unimaginable turns out to be real.
When we love, God becomes tangible. That is true when we forgive. . . when we work for justice or peace or healing. It is as though God is waiting for us to let Him/Her loose in our lives.
That old question that asks "do believe in the existence of God?" cannot be answered with YES or NO. It can only be answered by enabling your conception of God to act.
Through the ages, theologians have speculated noisily about the nature of God. That continuing debate provides stimulating discussion. Bit if we really mean it when we pray "thy will be done", we are responsible for bringing God's will Into existence. Apart from that action, God is but a concept.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Now is the Time!
As I look over the Christian church across the world, I join God as He "sits in His heaven and laughs". What strikes me as humorous is the determination of so many to make some past insights meaningful despite their terrible deficiencies. Catholics are intent on ushering Thomas and Augustine into the 21st century. Lutherans try to make Luther a theological hero. Presbyterians still try to solve Calvin's predestination. Evangelicals pursue the 20th century insistence on the Five Fundamentals. All of them are applying some outworn idea to a new world.
I think of the seventeenth century as the beginning of the modern era. That century saw the urgency of the people replacing the power of the monarchy.
That century saw Galileo challenge the authority of tradition and dogma. That century brought the Pilgrims insisting that God's revelation does not depend on kings and councils. A new age was being born.
Call it the age of science - or of democracy - it upended the the formation of truth by crediting the experience of investigative people, researchers or scientists. One curious event demonstrates the big change: Fra Lippo Lippi was dismissed from his monastery because he drew a picture of a tree with the green leaves he saw instead of the brown leaves required by medieval artistic standards.
We have lived in the midst of this learning community for several centuries. And we are still reluctant to let of our nostalgic dependence on the past. This week's news has focused on pageantry with the Queen of England and an obsession with the Pope. They reflect our reluctance to move away from ancient authority to modern discovery.
How can the church speak to people today when its language and ideas and information are rooted in a different language? How can people schooled in evolution and space travel and computers and relativity and ego analysis subdue their intelligence and their culture to embrace that outworn past?
God must be laughing!
I think of the seventeenth century as the beginning of the modern era. That century saw the urgency of the people replacing the power of the monarchy.
That century saw Galileo challenge the authority of tradition and dogma. That century brought the Pilgrims insisting that God's revelation does not depend on kings and councils. A new age was being born.
Call it the age of science - or of democracy - it upended the the formation of truth by crediting the experience of investigative people, researchers or scientists. One curious event demonstrates the big change: Fra Lippo Lippi was dismissed from his monastery because he drew a picture of a tree with the green leaves he saw instead of the brown leaves required by medieval artistic standards.
We have lived in the midst of this learning community for several centuries. And we are still reluctant to let of our nostalgic dependence on the past. This week's news has focused on pageantry with the Queen of England and an obsession with the Pope. They reflect our reluctance to move away from ancient authority to modern discovery.
How can the church speak to people today when its language and ideas and information are rooted in a different language? How can people schooled in evolution and space travel and computers and relativity and ego analysis subdue their intelligence and their culture to embrace that outworn past?
God must be laughing!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Triple Threat
Our minds like to deal with certainties, facts that can be certified. But certainties are rare, and we are required to live on beliefs, convictions, and dreams.
A close view of this situation can be seen in Prospero's clear statement at the climax of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. Prospero looks over the stage which has just been filled with actors and scenery, and he points at the insubstantial nature of the scene:
First, the actors have "vanished into thin air". Second, the cloud-capped towers and solemn temples of the stage prove to be formed of "baseless fabric which is soon dissolved". Finally, our lives are depicted as "the stuff dreams are made of". But Prosperous is not proposing that the drama just staged is meaningless.
What is suggested here about the real world we inhabit? I think he is saying that human life is brief and meaningless without those dreams. Human concerns like beauty, honor, love, justice and truth are without substance. They are creations of the human mind which give us what little "stuff" is available to us.
We don't need to despair over our lack of certainty or substance. We have the capacity to be nourished by music, encouraged by poetry, strengthened by drama, satisfied with scientific progress, affirmed by our faith, fulfilled with our belief in family. These are compelling realities that give us meaning despite their insubstantial nature. Rejoice in them!
A close view of this situation can be seen in Prospero's clear statement at the climax of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. Prospero looks over the stage which has just been filled with actors and scenery, and he points at the insubstantial nature of the scene:
First, the actors have "vanished into thin air". Second, the cloud-capped towers and solemn temples of the stage prove to be formed of "baseless fabric which is soon dissolved". Finally, our lives are depicted as "the stuff dreams are made of". But Prosperous is not proposing that the drama just staged is meaningless.
What is suggested here about the real world we inhabit? I think he is saying that human life is brief and meaningless without those dreams. Human concerns like beauty, honor, love, justice and truth are without substance. They are creations of the human mind which give us what little "stuff" is available to us.
We don't need to despair over our lack of certainty or substance. We have the capacity to be nourished by music, encouraged by poetry, strengthened by drama, satisfied with scientific progress, affirmed by our faith, fulfilled with our belief in family. These are compelling realities that give us meaning despite their insubstantial nature. Rejoice in them!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Religion Without Miracles
By the time that the young Christian church was ready to challenge the Roman empire, it had augmented its origins with astounding miracles. The Galilean peasant- become- evangelist Jesus was heralded as being born of a virgin in a sainted village as angels sang in heaven and a star moved across the sky. His career was filled with miracles and his death affected all mankind.
These miracles surely impressed the worldly Romans with the cosmic nature of Jesus' ministry. But without the miracles, would Christianity have held them as a valid revelation of God? Would we become Christians without those miracles?
Surely those miracles awake our slumbering imaginations. They arouse our awareness of the unsolved mystery of human existence and beg for any kind of alternative explanation of our being. They argue that if Jesus was to be the savior of mankind, then the usual order of heaven and earth should rightly be altered. Roman civilization was not as skeptical as modern minds are, so it was open to reports of such amazing events.
How about us today? With our scientific mind-set and our investigative archaeological research, our tendency is to treat these miracles as literary exaggerations. There may be reasoned explanations for each one, as thousands of sermons attest. But the substance remains questionable: would Christianity be a viable religion without the miracles?
My answer is YES. The scientific mind-set pays no homage to such naturalistic miracles. It is intent with miracles on a different scale. Human existence, the evolutionary urge, the nature of light, the circulation of blood, the convolutions of the ego - these are among the miracles that beg for some accountability. The more subtle miracles surround issues of love and forgiveness, grace and faith, and these remain as challenges for every generation. Poetic and dramatic creations make vivid explanations in every new age.
We have, then, in the biblical record an account of the evangelist Jesus attracting crowds of people to hear his message. That message had its unique influence. But it was the charismatic nature of Jesus that caused people to open their passions to him and find themselves with God. That experience, augmented with miracle stories, was the Christian message. Without the miracles, we can still thrive as Christians.
These miracles surely impressed the worldly Romans with the cosmic nature of Jesus' ministry. But without the miracles, would Christianity have held them as a valid revelation of God? Would we become Christians without those miracles?
Surely those miracles awake our slumbering imaginations. They arouse our awareness of the unsolved mystery of human existence and beg for any kind of alternative explanation of our being. They argue that if Jesus was to be the savior of mankind, then the usual order of heaven and earth should rightly be altered. Roman civilization was not as skeptical as modern minds are, so it was open to reports of such amazing events.
How about us today? With our scientific mind-set and our investigative archaeological research, our tendency is to treat these miracles as literary exaggerations. There may be reasoned explanations for each one, as thousands of sermons attest. But the substance remains questionable: would Christianity be a viable religion without the miracles?
My answer is YES. The scientific mind-set pays no homage to such naturalistic miracles. It is intent with miracles on a different scale. Human existence, the evolutionary urge, the nature of light, the circulation of blood, the convolutions of the ego - these are among the miracles that beg for some accountability. The more subtle miracles surround issues of love and forgiveness, grace and faith, and these remain as challenges for every generation. Poetic and dramatic creations make vivid explanations in every new age.
We have, then, in the biblical record an account of the evangelist Jesus attracting crowds of people to hear his message. That message had its unique influence. But it was the charismatic nature of Jesus that caused people to open their passions to him and find themselves with God. That experience, augmented with miracle stories, was the Christian message. Without the miracles, we can still thrive as Christians.
Better and Wetter at the Family Y!
Vacation
time! So now's the time to travel far
and wide
Spring rains
are gone, the country's high and dry.
You'll find
it hot and dusty everywhere you ride:
It's better
and wetter at the Family Y.
I'd like to
see the Alamo out on the Texas plain
Where far
too many soldiers had to die.
But now
that's oil country that's always wanting rain:
It's better
and wetter at the Family Y
I'd like to
try the stratosphere, just to look down from
The towers
of Manhattan or Dubai.
The air is
like a vacuum there, it makes you want to come where
It's better
and wetter at the Family Y.
I'd like to
be in Egypt; I'd like to pet the sphinx,
To see those
pyramids reaching to the sky
But it's
drier and it's dustier there than anybody thinks.
It's better
and wetter at the Family Y
And, oh, to
be in Athens to see the Parthenon
With its
pillars and its portals standing high.
Now the
place is filled with boulders and the roof has fallen in,
It's better
and wetter at the Family Y
And then
there is old London town, always a lively place The Olympic games are coming in
July With sprints and leaps and hurdles clouding up the pace It's better and
wetter at the Family Y.
Well, yes,
it is vacation time, it's time to make a choice.
With lots of
new experiences to try
For the
prospect of this summer, everybody raise your voice:
IT'S BETTER
AND WETTER AT THE FAMILY Y.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
BY NO ONE BUT ME!
Jesus' baffling statement "No one comes to the Father
but by me" comes in John's gospel. John puts these words forward in a
desperate attempt to establish Jesus' uniqueness against the claims of
other evangelists. But the fallout of that assertion is the rejection
of every person who does not bow to Jesus as the only savior of all
mankind. Could Jesus have limited everyone's access to God to only His
followers?
The Old testament abounds with required means to approach God.There are over six hundred laws to be obeyed; circumcision; the temple; the rituals; Jerusalem itself; Justice; Israel; the Scrolls. Is John suggesting that Jesus replaces all of these as a means of coming before God?
.It was John, writing sixty years after Jesus died, who makes this claim. John is intent on singling Jesus as sole means to God as a replacement of all the Hebrew arsenal as well as other evangelists of his time. This colossal claim is a building block for the growing Christian church, John asserts. How could Jesus outflank his competitors
if their preaching and teaching were regarded as authentic?
John's statement of Jesus' uniqueness here also demolishes the claims of every other religion in their enterprise of approaching God. In effect, John is claiming a single
Religion for mankind, one centered in Jesus. Is that possible? Is that conceivable?
I regard John's statement as an overblown fantasy as he is caught up in the stressful action of promoting the Christian church in the midst of Roman power. Jesus was unique, but he was one of many representatives of God. That is my understanding. What is yours?
The Old testament abounds with required means to approach God.There are over six hundred laws to be obeyed; circumcision; the temple; the rituals; Jerusalem itself; Justice; Israel; the Scrolls. Is John suggesting that Jesus replaces all of these as a means of coming before God?
.It was John, writing sixty years after Jesus died, who makes this claim. John is intent on singling Jesus as sole means to God as a replacement of all the Hebrew arsenal as well as other evangelists of his time. This colossal claim is a building block for the growing Christian church, John asserts. How could Jesus outflank his competitors
if their preaching and teaching were regarded as authentic?
John's statement of Jesus' uniqueness here also demolishes the claims of every other religion in their enterprise of approaching God. In effect, John is claiming a single
Religion for mankind, one centered in Jesus. Is that possible? Is that conceivable?
I regard John's statement as an overblown fantasy as he is caught up in the stressful action of promoting the Christian church in the midst of Roman power. Jesus was unique, but he was one of many representatives of God. That is my understanding. What is yours?
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