On Easter - The Cosmic Nature of the Cross

    I find myself asking this question a lot lately:  What was the nature of what happened on the cross of Christ?  I know for some this question is irrelevant because the historicity of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is questionable by some standards.  But for those of us that believe that it happened and that it was the folcrum point of history, the question remains, what exactly happened?  It's easy to say things like, "sins were forgiven" or "man was made to be in right standing with God", but I am asking something deeper, questioning the very substance of the transformation that happened.  I question this because many of the people I see that claim to believe that man was made in right standing with God because Christ took on himself the sins of the world are the ones I see who live as if a further sacrifice is required.  Put simply, when Jesus uttered those words, "It is finished" (John 19:30), was something finished?  Now, I am well aware of the long history and tradition of theology that has been mined from the ancient scriptures regarding this concept - but I am asking this question based on one thing: observation.  Why do we behave as if the words of Christ were, "It is nearly done if you can simply stop sinning and make sure people know you disapprove of (insert sin of choice)."  This behavior seems to indicate that for some, nothing was finished at all.  They are no different than the ancients, needing to offer one more sacrifice so that the gods can be appeased. 

    My point is that Easter represents the finish line for me.  Something changed the day Jesus rose from the dead, for everyone for all time.  I make no exceptions to that idea, regardless of anyone's interpretation of scripture.  I can't say I know what changed at the core of the substance of the universe, or if that is even something that happened at all.  It is simply beyond my comprehension.  But, I can say that something has changed in me.  I lived most of my life as a religious person offering sacrifices on the proverbial altar in hopes that God's wrath would be appeased, but now I have come to see that when Jesus said it was finished, he meant it.  Nothing is required, all is at an end.  As Tolkien wrote, "Now comes the dawn..."

We're Farther Along.....by and by.

    This is my first blog on blogspot.com.  I decided to start blogging here because I didn't have the capacity on my website to have a comment stream....and I was missing the conversation that writing one's thoughts is supposed to create.  The title of my blog is inspired by one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists - Josh Garrels.  The song is called "Farther Along" and it speaks, in a word, about the progress of the human soul towards wholeness....and the role God plays in this.    
    I was talking with a friend casually in a parking lot the other day and she was telling me about how she was heading to the hospital because her boyfriend was sick.  She was speaking fast and she was distracted, and then threw in the casual "Well, you know, God's in control."  When she uttered that phrase, I immediately shot out, "Really?  Think so?"  My response seemed to snap her into a consciousness with what she was saying.  "Huh?"
    "Do you think God is really in control?" I said.
    "Well, yeah, right?  I mean...yeah.  I think he is," She replied.
    "Did he make your boyfriend sick?" I said.
    "No, but he allowed it........right?"  came the increasingly tentative response.
 
    We went on to have a wonderful and gentle conversation about what God is like and what we believe and why we believe it.  I can't say either of our beliefs changed over the course of the conversation, but perhaps we had become more conscious of what those beliefs were and why we believed them.  I think we had become more conscious of the questions that our beliefs raised about God and people and the nature of those things.  See, every belief raises a question behind it.  The question that accompanies those questions is whether we should fear those questions or not.  Should we fear what we cannot know or explain?  Why do we try to draw concretes from something that cannot be known concretely?
    A person I am very close to told me the other day that all this introspection is not a healthy thing.  I try to understand what was meant in that statement, but all I see is fear of the unknown and the desire to keep those things that are unseen in us hidden away.  So, in this blog, which I will be writing more regularly, I will seek to simply give myself and others the permission to sail the Ocean of God's grace in a boat called "doubt" and see if it gets any of closer to a conscious faith - where real power begins to show itself by transforming us.

Seth