The Power and Peril of Easter

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, March 21, 2008

“Jesus, regardless of where his corpse ended up, is dead and remains dead.”

Think that statement is provocative? Absolutely. Spoken by an atheist or irreligious person? Actually, no. Thomas Sheehan, professor at Stanford University’s Department of Religious Studies, said that. Dr. Sheehan has a theory about the story of Jesus’ resurrection: It’s a legend loosely based on obscure memories of what might really have happened when some women discovered that Jesus’ body was missing.

“The original Christian community in Jerusalem was deeply troubled by that deathly silence of the tomb, the utter absence of Jesus,” Sheehan wrote in his book, The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity. “They began to speak into the dark cavity of the tomb and give it a meaning born of their disappointment and their hope. The women had fled into a silence that corresponded to the absence of Jesus; but the Jerusalem community began to fill that silence with words. They invented a story of an angel who appeared inside the empty tomb.”

Sheehan builds his case for that conclusion through something called historical-critical analysis. He assumes that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were all written as propaganda – documents designed to convince people to think and behave in particular ways. Therefore, to discover the historical accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the gospels, one has to go into speculative theories as to how those documents came to be written, and what sources may have contributed to their creation. Somewhere in the mist of the unknown, Sheehan concludes, there are documents and facts that contradict the historical accuracy of the gospels.

The gospels are dangerous, and religious historians like Sheehan attempt to “disarm” them because of that danger. What is the danger? That people will believe that God actually does something miraculous! In the worldview formed by modern science and empirical study, there can not be something that stands outside the natural order. People don’t suddenly become alive after death anymore than they can turn into werewolves, vampires, or ghosts.

Marcus Borg, a retired priest in the Episcopal Church, agrees with Sheehan. Jesus did not physically return from death – the resurrection was symbolic and theological. “I think the resurrection of Jesus really happened, but I have no idea if it involves anything happening to his corpse, and, therefore, I have no idea whether it involves an empty tomb … so I would have no problem whatsoever with archaeologists finding the corpse of Jesus. For me, that would not be a discrediting of the Christian faith or the Christian tradition.”

Sheehan and Borg are smart men. On an IQ test, they probably would score much, MUCH higher than I. But intelligence can get in the way of believing when it is used to debunk faith and rationalize it away. I am not anti-intellectual. I think God gave us intelligence as a gift that can be used to help us better understand God, ourselves, and one another. But, as I have said before, every good gift can be abused and misused. Borg and Sheehan have used their intelligence to push us away from understanding the Resurrection as something that actually happened. And I think that’s sad.

Historic, orthodox Christianity insists that God broke through time and space to become REAL – someone who could be touched, fed, clothed – and killed. Further, it insists that God’s actions in that physical reality did something that forever changed human destiny. Christianity, therefore, isn’t simply about how to be emotionally balanced or ethically correct. Christianity is about being physically, emotionally and mentally transformed from what we are to what we were created to be – to bring us into a real relationship with God in this life and beyond. That kind of religion isn’t satisfied with a legendary resurrection of Jesus. It’s not just the empty tomb, it’s also the eyewitness testimonies of actual, physical appearances of a living Jesus, and what happens to them after they believe.

The apostle Paul strongly disagrees with Borg, Sheehan, and other modernists. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15: “Now, my dear friends, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also.”

“But if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.”

Dr. Albert Mohler, another modern scholar, puts Paul’s letter in perspective for us today: “Paul sets himself – and the true Church – against all who deny or deride the empty tomb. Either the tomb is empty, or our faith is in vain. Paul wants nothing to do with the effort to find a spiritual meaning without a historical event, nor with anti-supernaturalism. Against modern skeptics, Paul cared deeply about whether the tomb was empty.”

I also like Dr. Mohler’s conclusions to this controversy of the Resurrection: “Why do so many people hate the very idea of the risen Christ? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the vindication of God’s purpose in sending his Son for the redemption of sinners. A world full of degenerate moderns – who do not even see themselves as sinners – wants nothing to do with Jesus Christ as our sinless substitute, who shed his blood for the remission of our sins.”

The liturgy we use during Communion says the mystery of the church is this: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” Science and history cannot explain it nor prove it. It can only deny it. What about you? What do you believe? Go to church Sunday and EXPERIENCE the Resurrection for yourself!

Feeling SAD? Get Some Light!

First published in The Daily Sentinel, Friday, February 1, 2008

The rush of Christmas is behind us (whew!), and summer seems so far away. In the bleak midwinter, it is easy to get the bad-weather blues. In recent years, scientists have even developed a name for it: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Sad, indeed!

Scientists tell us that the cure for SAD is light; we just don’t get enough of it during the shortened winter days for some people’s brains to produce the specific chemical that wards off depression (or to shut off the production of another hormone that can cause depression). Interestingly, women get SAD over men by a 3-to-1 ratio. But no matter your gender, I have a word of advice: if you’re feeling SAD, get into the Light!

Call it a stretch, but I think this resonates with the Christian experience. The Gospel of John opens with the image of Jesus as the Light: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” Life can be extremely SAD (Sinful And Doubtful) – especially without Jesus Christ. But He – the Light – is a cure for our SADness, if only we could understand and accept it.

It seems to me that much of the time, we only want a little Light – not too much, because our eyes start to squint and sometimes the Light hurts our eyes. I especially have a hard time turning on the light in the bathroom first thing in the morning. Let me just us the nightlight, that’s enough…

Actually, no it is not. I remember once reaching into the bathtub to turn on the shower. The nightlight didn’t reveal anything, but the moment I turned on the water, a cat shrieked and jumped out of the bathtub. I nearly jumped out of my skin!

Spiritually speaking, we are often only half-awake. We don’t want too much Light – just a little will do. But when the cats of disaster appear out of nowhere, we are not ready. Going to church once a week for an hour for worship is not enough Light to get you through the SAD times. And if you participate in church less than that, you are still walking in total darkness!

The only way to get enough Light to cure your SAD is to truly commit yourself to the Light! Be involved in an ongoing relationship with Jesus and with other Christians. Join a Sunday school class and/or weekday Bible study. Get involved in an outreach program that helps others. Begin afterschool tutoring, hospital and/or nursing home visitations – anything that brings your attention off of yourself and on to others.

When people tell me that their lives are spiritually empty, I ask them what they’re doing about it. Are they taking time for personal prayer and Bible devotions? Are they sharing love and kindness towards others? Are they active beyond the boundaries of occasional Sunday morning worship? If they’re not, then of course their lives are empty. The paradox of Christian living is that the more you give, the more you receive. Show Light and you see Light!

It is tempting to think that our pastors are the ones paid to do ministry on behalf of their churches. But that is not Jesus’ model. When we read his “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:19, it doesn’t say “go and pay someone to make disciples…” Instead, Jesus says “go and make disciples… and surely I am with you always.” Pastors are ordinary people tasked with the extraordinary responsibility to get EVERYONE involved in disciple-making. And that means YOU!

Know what the difference is between a spiritually alive church and a spiritually dead church? LIGHT!! The alive church has opened themselves up to share more Light by reflecting more Light and therefore experiencing more Light. For Christmas, I gave my family custom t-shirts. On the front, there’s a picture of the moon and a caption: “Be the Moon.” On the back of the shirt is an incredibly colorful icon of Jesus that looks like stained glass. Its caption: “Reflect the Son.”

There is only one way to stop being SAD, and that’s to have Light! My friends: Be the Moon; reflect the Son!!