Good Fridday Refelections 3/22/08

For the longest time, I never understood how the death of Christ works and atones for our sins. I always believed, of course. Even C.S. Lewis said that just as man eats his meals knowing it is good for him no matter what science supports, so is the believing in the Mystery of our Salvation no matter if it makes sense or not, we know it works. As I reflected on the Good Friday lessons and looked at the cross that Christ died on and prayed, I thought about death. What it is, what it means, and how it makes sense in the big picture.

Death is essential in life and unavoidable. It marks the end of a life and recalls the beginning and all the time spend between. It is perhaps the largest event in life in which all mortal men will face. It is a universal symbol in all cultures which marks the twisted idea that in death, there is rebirth and new life. Whether it being reincarnation, or a life in the world to come, we as humans are deeply impacted by the ending of life in a very sacramental way.

In most cultures and religions, the spilling of blood is what often makes death transform into new life. Rituals which emphasize this are some of earliest man has practiced and is nearly universal. What can explain this phenomenon? Did our early primitive ancestors come up with the idea and it spread across the worlds and across the seas? I think not. Rather than being an ancient religious trend which survived today, it is a part of which is imbedded in all human behavior and endeavor. Just like religion itself, we know in our sixth senses and third eyes that the death and spilling of blood is essential for new life.

After the God of the Hebrews delivered Moses and the Hebrews out of Egypt he established a covenant where YHWH would be their God and they would be his chosen people and would follow the laws set before them. And once a year a high priest would stand before God in the temple and sacrifice an unblemished and perfect lamb on the behalf the of the people that theirs sins of being unable to keep the law would atone for.

The entire Old Testament, in a nutshell, is a number of stories how the chosen people would not keep God’s Laws and would call them to repent. A number of times God would not accept their sacrifices due to their resistance to him. And thus they remained in their sins.

Though God how wrathful he may be in delivering his people to their enemies is also shown through out scripture God to be slow to anger, quick to forgive, and full of mercy and love. God knew that Israel, let along the whole population of the world, was not capable of keeping his law and atoning for their sins.

God knowing this, Incarnated himself into the Virgin Mary that he would be born a mortal. Fully man, yet fully God. Jesus as God’s begotten knew why he was sent. To yet again repeat the words of the prophets of repentance and to bring back those who had broken Gods law. The only deferences, God was preaching to his own people face to face and the message of the law was summorized: to love.

In animal sacrifice, the means are temporal and profane. The affects they had only changed the soul so much and God could reject them. God in his love knew he would have to do it himself. Just as the highest and most perfect priest would represent the people and sacrifice a lamb to God for the forgiveness of sins, so did Jesus represent the whole population of the earth and sacrifice himself as a lamb for the reconciliation between the profane and the cosmos.

The word “sacred” is closely tied to the word “desecrate” or “defile” (or “poop” on). Jesus, being fully man, and yet fully God was desecrated in the worst way possible at the time. Being whipped by leather lashes with pieces of sharp rocks and glass in them, and having hands and feet nail to a piece of unstable wood, pulling on your pierced limbs in order to breath. In the death of the absolute sacred, God himself; came new life, and the sacrifice was perfect and complete. God alone knows how and why this law and pattern of the spilling of blood and death gives new life and forgiveness, but it works.

Of course, if Jesus had just died and that was the end of the story; then we would have no idea if his death was actually worth anything and if mankind was really reconciled unto God. It would be a normal death and shedding of blood which brought forth the means of nothing. However, the death of Christ the Sacred brought forth the new life in his resurrection from the dead, the ultimate miracle of miracles as a sign that the sacrifice was complete and our sins no longer kept us from God’s presence.

A lot of people think that the idea of death for life is primitive, ancient, non-practical, and ubsurd. And they are most right. It is ubsurd. It can't be be proven with means of modern methods of science and the results can't nessesarily be seen. But, so is all of religion in general. A person can't simply take an idea out of its context and expect it to make sense. In it's own context, it fits. Having all this in mind, makes me appreciate the coming Easter. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Will come again. Our sins are forgiven. Alleluia!

Sin and our nature

Sin. Such a lovely word. It's means to literally "miss the mark" like missing a target with a bow and arrow. We are all familiar with it. When you look at it from an Evengelical perspective, it's every where. The half naked chicks on Tv, premartial sex, swearing, forgetting feed your dog, and so forth. From an academic view, things like the "Seven Deadly Sins" are use to look at ourselves and find which part of our lives could be improved to better our overall wellness. But, is this the word the only reason why Christ became incarnate and died and resurrected? For our sin? Or is deeper, is there more to it?

This is the logic in the message most of society see's when it comes to the message of Salvation (the Gospel):If we are sinful, then we are forigners to God. If we have a savior, then we are not forigners to God. Thus we need a savior.If A then BIf C then not BTherefore, CIn logic proof writing thats { (A>B>)(C>~B) }=C

We are Bad, God is good. We need Jesus to bridge the gap. That's the watered down version of the Gospel presented today by most evangelical churches. The normal rule of thumb if you've broken one of the 10 Commandments, then you need Jesus.

Honestly thought, I think there is more to it. Based on the 10 Commandments that God gave Moses the Hebrews interpreted 600+ laws to keep in order to keep them free from sin and keep them Holy. Then after Christ came, he "fulfilled" the law, and sin isn't limited to a list of things not to do. Sin is countless, unlimited, never ending; as well is God's love for us which cancels sin out.

Ok, enought on the act's of sin. What about it's nature? Our nature? Are we sinful by nature? Is our nature sinful? If it is then did Christ come to save us from our sin, or our nature? Even when we think of sin, we think of acts or doings which hinder us from God. And you see friends, I think it's much more than that.

For this to make sense to me, I have to think like a Hindu. In Hinduism, we as humans are trapped on this damn wheel of reincarnation called Samarah. The only way to get off this silly wheel is to meditate until the point of "Enlightenment". Enlightenment is the complete detachment from the world and your mind turns purely Godly. And when you die, your soul will reunite with God. In this tradition, it's not what we do which makes us miserable sinners, it's the fact that we are human. Do I completely agree with this? No, otherwise I'd have Hindu on as my religion on facebook rather than Episcopal and I would be meditating on a pile of nails rather than typing this out. But, I do agree with the idea that its not just our acts which separate us from God, it's our very self.

Christianity and coming into the faith isn't just about repenting of your sin and trying not to do it again. It's about taking complete responsibilty in being ourselves by repenting. I think that after man had the Great Fall in Eden (where ever that is or whatever that means so to speak) we didn't just become sinful in nature, we became something just untouchable. I almost can't explain it. Maybe because it's 3am in the morning, but who knows.

Anyway, I don't think just it's our sinful actions which separate us from God, it's our very being and existance. Jesus didn't come just to save us from our sin, he came to save us from ourselves.

And if you look at what the word repentance, it literally means, it means to "get a new mind". It's not just cheating on your girlfriend, being an alcoholic, or cheating on your income tax; it's become something completely new. And I think it fits quite well with what I'm thinking.

In conclusion (i slapped those who just said "finally"), our acts of sin arn't what separates us from God. It's ourselves. If it were just our sins which separated Mankind from God then theoretically the sacrafices of Jews to God for the attonment of their sins should have worked. Thus no need for a savior. That would imply that there is something still inside of us that makes us capable. But they didn't. We arn't capable.

In religious philosophy, the purpose of the Sacred is to become desecrated and defiled. Think of it as food. Food is holy and good. What do we do to it? We eat it and crap it out. But for the greater good for ourselves, this process gives us nuitriants and helps our survival. We were created a perfect and holy people but ended up getting craped on. But in this process of becomes disciples and taking responsibilty, we repent of our sins (the small stuff) and through Christ we work on ourselves to becomes more like God.

We live in the post-modern age, the age philosophers today call the "Age of Anxiety". We just don't know what going to happen any more. We live in an age of thinking, questioning, and reasoning. The Gospel message is quite simple. but in today's world people are hungry for seomthing more. Something to really chew on, meat. Maybe we would have a bigger impact on Western Culture if Christian salvation was more than selling Jesus with emotions for eternal life.

Ok, did all that make any sense? I am really tired. I do want to hear feed back if anyone has any.