Easter is an interesting time, usually a time when people, whether Christian or not, go to church. It is for that reason, that many church leaders talk about salvation.
The other day was Easter and as most Easters go, or at least the ones that I have been to, there was talk of salvation in the sense of going to heaven or judgment in the sense of going to hell, yet there is usually no talk of resurrection. There is usually a drama about a Christian who is knocking at people's doors and trying to get them to accept Jesus into their heart and go to heaven forever. Is that really what is important? Populating heaven so that we will have enough people to play in the heavenly football game, with subs and fans.
I find it interesting that when we think about resurrection we think about heaven and eternal life, yet that is not how the first century Jews and for that matter the first century Christians would have thought. Resurrection would have been heard not in terms of life after death but rather "life after life after death", however that is a topic for another time, but I can recommend some good books on the topic of "life after life after death." The main point is that they were not focused on saving souls from eternal torment, yet this is the main concept heard during the wide array of Easter services each year.
Perhaps we should re frame what the Easter holiday really stands for. If life after death and saving souls from torment was not that important in the life of the first century, why is it so important for us today? Maybe it should not be our focus, but rather bringing God's justice to the world today, working with God to make the world the way it was intended to be, having us be the stewards of this creation, and fulfilling our destiny.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Christian Fortune Cookie
Through out my life I have always had other Christians, friends, family, even people I do not know, the lot of them offering answers to life's questions with simple Bible passages. Harmless and considerate, yet misunderstood! It was not until recently that I have been pondering over these inquiries, and have come to understand that when people use what they think they know, they are doing the same thing as fortune cookies, in a sense.
If you have ever eaten a fortune cookie, you know that the best part of the cookie, besides the cookie itself dipped in ice cream is that there is a fortune within it, and on the back there is a word in English and its translation in Chinese. Many Christians that I know, and I am even guilty of this, use a single passage found in the Bible and force it to mean something that it does not mean to make us feel better, or fulfill our own need to find a meaning of that passage that was never intended to be heard. This whole concept is about context, which the majority of the Christian population do not do. Hermeneutics before exegesis, does not help in our understanding of God or our role in this life.
For the purpose of this blog Christianity is the cookie, 1 or 2 passages are the fortune, and Christian terminology is the Chinese word to be learned. It is important to understand, that we can make anything sound the way that we want it if we do not have the context behind it, and unfortunately many people, including Christians, do this and think it is ok. Instead of eating the cookie and not paying attention to the context of the fortune, lets eat the cookie while searching for the context in order to have that fortune apply to us today.
If you have ever eaten a fortune cookie, you know that the best part of the cookie, besides the cookie itself dipped in ice cream is that there is a fortune within it, and on the back there is a word in English and its translation in Chinese. Many Christians that I know, and I am even guilty of this, use a single passage found in the Bible and force it to mean something that it does not mean to make us feel better, or fulfill our own need to find a meaning of that passage that was never intended to be heard. This whole concept is about context, which the majority of the Christian population do not do. Hermeneutics before exegesis, does not help in our understanding of God or our role in this life.
For the purpose of this blog Christianity is the cookie, 1 or 2 passages are the fortune, and Christian terminology is the Chinese word to be learned. It is important to understand, that we can make anything sound the way that we want it if we do not have the context behind it, and unfortunately many people, including Christians, do this and think it is ok. Instead of eating the cookie and not paying attention to the context of the fortune, lets eat the cookie while searching for the context in order to have that fortune apply to us today.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Resurrection For Today
This morning was an interesting morning as most Sunday mornings are, but today was different, it is a week until Easter. In the midst of a chaotic rush of customers and drinks, I heard a group of people whom I assume had either just come from church or were on their way to church start talking about "how great it will be when this world is done and we are in 'heaven'". This thought is usually the type of talk that happens around this time of year, Easter time that is. As Christians we have this misconceived notion that the resurrection of Jesus and for that matter this whole time is about being saved from our sins and going to heaven when we die. When I heard that, I thought of the many times that I have had conversations with other people about many of the same concepts. "This life sucks, it will be better in heaven, and so we should just hope for that day to come soon," in essence what they are saying is that we should not worry about global warming, poverty, corruption, injustice, etc. instead we should focus on saving souls so that when all go to heaven we can break the heavenly fire codes by having too many people up there. What kind of hope does that offer for today? If that is truly the ideology of so many Christians, then we have no hope, in fact we are not Christian, we are pagan! Strong words, but there is truth in there.
Let me suggest what Christian hope should be. If we are created in the image of God, then we should be his hands and feet to the rest of the world. In the words of an author that I deeply enjoy reading, we are signposts pointing to things beyond ourselves (this is a reference to N. T. Wright). Our role is to work with God, restoring the original intention of creation, to bring justice back into what was created good. A friend once told me that he does not feel as though his role in this life is to help out, humanitarian aid if you will. He is correct in a sense, because it is not his role alone, it is ours as a whole, to work together to make the world as it was meant to be, or at least move in that direction. Instead of thinking of Easter as the time when we think about being disembodied and not having to worry about what is going on now, lets think of it as a time when God worked in a drastic way, a way that started new creation, in which we are the stewards. What would the world be like if we focused on where we are here on earth instead of focusing on where we'll be in heaven, and like wise, if we focused on the person as a whole instead of their spirit?
This blog does not necessarily convey everything that I would like to say, so if you have any questions or comments please feel free to respond.
Let me suggest what Christian hope should be. If we are created in the image of God, then we should be his hands and feet to the rest of the world. In the words of an author that I deeply enjoy reading, we are signposts pointing to things beyond ourselves (this is a reference to N. T. Wright). Our role is to work with God, restoring the original intention of creation, to bring justice back into what was created good. A friend once told me that he does not feel as though his role in this life is to help out, humanitarian aid if you will. He is correct in a sense, because it is not his role alone, it is ours as a whole, to work together to make the world as it was meant to be, or at least move in that direction. Instead of thinking of Easter as the time when we think about being disembodied and not having to worry about what is going on now, lets think of it as a time when God worked in a drastic way, a way that started new creation, in which we are the stewards. What would the world be like if we focused on where we are here on earth instead of focusing on where we'll be in heaven, and like wise, if we focused on the person as a whole instead of their spirit?
This blog does not necessarily convey everything that I would like to say, so if you have any questions or comments please feel free to respond.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments