Throughout Lent, the season leading up to Easter, I have focused my sermons on progressive Christianity. There are many Christian beliefs that people assume they must accept, or else they’re not really Christian. But many of these beliefs, they simply find unbelievable. They’re contrary to reason, they’re contrary to science, and – ironically – they are contrary to the Christian virtue of compassion.
Which leaves people a choice: either deny what they know to be true in order to accept the claims of Christianity; or, leave the church and abandon the faith.
Progressive Christianity liberates us from this dead-end. Progressive Christianity says it’s okay to ask questions; in fact, questions are encouraged. It’s okay to have doubts. It’s okay to engage in a debate with scripture itself.
In Jesus’ time, this would have been expected. And it’s still expected in Jewish congregations today. A few weeks ago, I attended a Jewish Shabbat service, as a part of Chapman University’s Founders’ Day. For this occasion, there were many Christians present, and at one point during the sermon, a few of them shouted out an “Amen!”
The preacher laughed; she said that among Jews, the typical response is not “Amen;” the typical response is, “Are you sure? Because that’s not how I see it…” Among Jews, both today, and 2,000 years ago, faith is made stronger through questioning, conversing, and debating.
So please keep that in mind today as we examine the resurrection. Feel free to question what I’m about to say, to disagree, to say, “that’s not how I see it.” Because in this Christian congregation, that’s okay.
Not long ago, archaeologists discovered a container – called an ossuary – that held some ancient bones. The ossuary was inscribed, “James, the son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus.”
There is some debate about the authenticity of the inscription, and scientists can’t tell if the inscription on the ossuary is as old as the ossuary itself.
However, all this has led progressive theologian and Bible scholar Marcus Borg to ask: What if archaeologists one day discover the bones of Jesus?
It is very much a hypothetical question. In fact, Borg himself doesn’t think it will ever happen. But if the bones of Jesus were found in a tomb, proving that a physical resurrection never happened, would that prove that Easter – which is all about an empty tomb – is a lie? Would that discovery invalidate Christianity as a whole?
Oh, I wish I had more time to talk about this today. We’re just barely going to scratch the surface! But maybe, in the weeks and months to come, we can ask questions, debate, and discuss, … and how exciting it will be!
It’s an interesting question, though, isn’t it? What if the bones of Jesus were discovered? Could faith survive that? Is there a truth in the resurrection story that is deeper and stronger than even a story of the body of one man coming back to life?
In past weeks, I’ve talked about the deeper truth and meaning behind many of our Bible stories; that much of what we read can be heard the same way we hear the parables: as stories that may or may not be literally true, but which have a deeper meaning.
Many progressive Christians read the Creation story this way, and also stories like Noah and the Ark, and Jonah (who was swallowed by a giant fish). Many Christians see a deep and abiding truth in these stories, a moral that doesn’t depend on a literal reading.
Many of these same Christians, however, cannot read the resurrection story this same way. They believe that it literally happened, or that they think that they are supposed to believe this. Only a few – some archaeologists, Bible scholars, and members of a group called the Jesus Seminar, mostly – dare to suggest that the resurrection itself might be a metaphor, a parable, for the awakening, the realization, and the new understanding that came to the disciples after Jesus’ death; a new understanding that brought new life and purpose to the work Jesus called them to.
What do I think? I think we should keep asking questions!
And the first and most important question I think we should ask is: So what? What difference does it all make? What does it mean to say, "I believe in the resurrection?"
For me, the resurrection means that there is hope and new life. Always.
It means that if things are at their bleakest, that is not the final word. There will be a tomorrow. Evil will be overcome. Not even death will put an end to hope.
How often do we find, in the midst of great sorrow and suffering, signs of hope and new life? We saw it after 9/11, when even the drivers on the streets of New York started responding to one another with just a little more kindness and compassion.
We saw it after Hurricane Katrina, after the earthquake in Haiti, after the tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri: an outpouring of support and relief; strangers helping strangers, recognizing – perhaps for the first time – that we are not individuals, but that we are bound together as one by something much greater than ourselves.
We see it in our own lives and the lives of those around us: in the midst of despair, sorrow, and sadness, and even in the midst of tragedy, we discover that life and love and hope are stronger, and outlast all other things.
God does not cause suffering. God does not cause sorrow. But in the midst of tragedy and even death, God is always at work, bringing forth new life.
When I start with what the archaeologists and the scholars know about what happened and what might have happened 2,000 years ago, and then move forward to today,… yes, I have questions (and they are fascinating questions!) .
But when I go the other way, when I move backwards, it makes a world of difference. When I see all the ways that hope and new life persevere, all the ways that new life is revealed even when all hope is lost, all the times that life triumphs over death…
then I know…
that the resurrection is true.
1 comment:
Of all the great and necessary freedoms listed in the First Amendment, freedom to exercise religion (not just to believe, but to live out that belief) is the most important; before freedom of speech, before freedom of the press, before freedom of assembly, before freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances, before all others.
Rich Santorum.
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