What Easter Means to Me

After Wednesday Night Supper tonight at my church, our pastor led a Bible study during which we watched a DVD presentation with Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan. This week's topic was Substitutionary Atonement.

They assert, and I agree, that Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice. He believed in his mission and his message so much that he stuck to his guns, so to speak, even though he knew it would probably lead to his death. The same could be said of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Ghandi. So his life was a sacrifice.

But not a substitute.

In fact, they make the point that part of Jesus' message was to let people know that instead of having to go to the temple to make a sacrifice and seek forgiveness through the high priest, they each had individual access to God and always had.

During the discussion afterward, the analogy I used was that it's like moving to a new place where the electricity has been turned on but the people moving in don't know it. So they don't flip the switch. And they remain in the dark.

One of the other people in the group asked, basically, "if Jesus didn't die for our sins, then do you still have to believe in him to go to heaven?".

The prevailing theme of the group's responses was that Jesus had a lot to say about how we should live and what impact a loving relationship with God should have on the way we live, but he didn't seemed to be focused so much on requirements. It is as if he was setlling once and for all that God loves and forgives us and then, says, "Now, then, how shall we live? Here are my suggestions...".

He wanted to make it clear that Roman imperialism was not the way, and neither were greed or force or violence, but instead, the way is love. God's love and our love for each other. Which cannot be taken away from us.

And the crucifixion followed by the resurrection demonstrates that with an exclamation point and in highlighted color.

That's what Easter means to me!

The lights are on. Flip the switch.

The Bible: A Miracle in Spite of Itself

Tonight I went to Wednesday night supper at my church and then, had the Lenten Bible study with our pastor while the kids went to youth choir and youth group. The passage we talked about was Exodus 17.

It became apparent, through our discussion, that the "miracle" that occurred was more likely an incident where Moses went off to be alone for a bit, grumbled a little to God about the people he was travelling with and their complaints about being thirsty, and then, suddenly remembered a way to get water. Striking the stick against the rock to get water was something he would have known to do because he had been a shepherd.

It reminds me of what sometimes happens when I have misplaced something and I finally get exasperated enough to ask God where it is. Suddenly, I think of a place I hadn't looked and lo and behold, there it is!

I got several things out of tonight's Bible study...

1) When there are troubles, the best thing to do is find a way to be alone for a while and talk to God about it.

2) The answers are within and if we get quiet enough to hear God's voice inside, we;ll get them.

3) The "greats" in the Bible are likely to have heard from God exactly the way we do today.

4) Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear (things may not have happened precisely as described). As Marcus Borg says, I take the Bible seriously but not literally!

5) Given that the Bible we read today was written by humans (all of them men), all of them influenced by their culture, who likely made mistakes and may even have created a few accounts here and there, the miracle of inspiration is that there is a message of continuity that survived all that. We see a God of love and mercy who created us and wants us and we see that God in both the OT and NT!

That's the miracle!

The Bible managed to capture a sense of who God really is in spite of itself!!