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By John T. Crestwell, Jr.
February 1, 2004
“Who is Christ when
traditional concepts such as incarnation, atonement, and the Trinity
no longer communicate any meaning? Who is Christ without the Virgin
Birth, miracles or Resurrection?”
These are not my words but the thoughts of retired Episcopal Bishop
and author, John Shelby Spong who has become a source of comfort for
many religious liberals and cause for pain for other conservatives.
His, what some term, radical message calls for a new Christianity
that sounds very much like Unitarian Universalism. In fact, he has
several best-selling books debating this issue. “Why Christianity
Must Change or Die,” “New Christianity For A New World,” “Rescuing
the Bible from Fundamentalism,” and Resurrection: Myth or Reality?”
are a few of his more popular titles where he challenges his faith,
using an historical method of apologetics to show why Christianity
must evolve into a broader diverse faith free from superstition.
Spong’s argument is really a centuries old argument where men and
women have lived and died attempting to explain why this story of
Jesus the Galilean martyr was the most important supposed happening
in the history of humanity. There have been several perspectives
that have emerged, over the ages, regarding the authenticity of
Jesus’ life and ministry. There has been this persistent historical
argument regarding Jesus, the man, or the “historical Jesus”,
juxtaposed against Jesus the myth, or better stated, Jesus as the
“Christ”. I don’t have time to cover this exhaustively but early on
some said Jesus was a man, godly, a being created like all other
humans and not God. This was the view of Arius in the 300’s CE and
would later be the view of early Unitarians who rejected the Trinity
as being unscriptural. Then others, like Tertillian and Athanasius,
during this same time, argued that Jesus Christ was indeed God
manifest in human form or “in the flesh”. Jesus was “fully human and
fully divine. Begotten not made and ‘homoousios’, of the same
substance, as God.” Jesus was God in every possible way. Now we all
know the latter thought is what prevailed in history.
But then there were others during that time, known to be
practitioners of the pagan religions of Rome, who recognized the
story of Jesus as a myth that encompassed many of the stories of
that time like the Osiris Dionysis myth which grew out of ancient
Egypt through Greece to Rome. This myth, which predated the Jesus
story by several hundred years, was about a dying and resurrected
god-man who was born on the 25th of December, performed miracles,
died and came back to life… The pagans saw the Jesus story as just
another myth in that day and time not to be taken more serious than
any other. A good book on this topic is “The Jesus Mysteries…Was the
Original Jesus A Pagan God?” It is written by a gentlemen named
Timothy Freke…
And so, then and now, we still wrestle with the question who was
Jesus and is this story of any significance to us today?
I remember when I was in seminary struggling with the question. And
during class, while my professors would be justifying primitive
concepts, I would daydream thinking about the millions of Hindus,
Muslims and Buddhists, and the earth-centered religions, trying to
figure out how they make it into heaven. There was no answer and I
was perplexed. But this would be a major turning point in my mental
evolution.
Recently I took this same thought to my students I taught
Comparative Religion to this past fall. I told them the story of a
little man who renounced wealth to live with his people. He could’ve
been a “big time” lawyer living it up, instead he chose to make his
own clothes and take the task of freeing his people upon his
shoulders. He was the conscience of his nation, eventually freeing
them from British colonialism. In the end he was assassinated and
became a martyr for his people. In his possession at that time of
his death were a pair of shoes, clothes he made, his spectacles and
a few books and that’s it… I said to them, “He was Hindu. Does he go
to Heaven or Hell?” The class was quiet until one student, a Baptist
preacher, spoke up. He said, “Well, I know he was a good man but
good don’t get you into Heaven. You have to believe in Jesus as the
way. So from my standpoint professor, he goes to hell.”
I said to him, and I say to you this morning…If Gandhi is going to
hell. I wouldn’t mind going to hell! If Gandhi, who sacrificed his
life for the greater good of humanity, goes to hell, I want to go to
hell too, because I want to be with a man who really understood what
living and giving is all about. He exemplified the principles of the
Sages better than anyone I know in modern history. Gandhi lived and
made a difference, which is really what we all want to do in our
little corners and sidewalks and streets—make a difference, do
something special with our lives.
And so, when you look at the story of Jesus beyond the miracles, the
supernatural occurrences, the magic what do you see? Is there
anything worth looking at? I think we end up seeing what Jefferson
saw. I think we end up seeing what Emerson saw. I think we end up
seeing what Martin Luther King, Jr. saw. I think we end up seeing
what John Shelby Spong saw… What did they see?
They saw a man that reached adulthood and said to himself, ”Am I
going to be a carpenter for the rest of my life or do I have a
larger destiny?” He decides to go off on his own for some
contemplation. He needed space to think, away from the neighborhood.
During this private time he realizes his gifts and his mind tells
him that he could use these gifts for vast pleasure and luxury or
the higher road of suffering for humanity. He says to himself,
“Satan get thee behind me” referring to the temptation to use his
gifts to take advantage of people’s weak spirits. Like the Buddha,
Jesus chooses the higher road and soon after, the thought comes to
him to be a reformer of his religion and culture. He sees people
going to bed hungry; people who need clothes on their backs. He sees
a wicked governmental system. He sees unjust laws that discriminate
against women and the sick. He gets angry at the plight of the human
condition and decides to standup for justice and to change these
societal ills. The words of the prophets spoke to him: “Let justice
roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Jesus
now feels a deep call to make a difference!
So, as the story goes, he goes from town to town ministering to
people through word and deed. He gains many followers and soon
becomes a threat to the establishment. He’s telling the people to
not follow the law if it gets in the way of common sense and helping
people. He’s allowing the quote, unquote “unclean” to be around him.
He’s forgiving sins when normally folk have to go to the Priest for
that. He’s preaching that the Kingdom or “realm” of God is within
you and that change occurs when you decide to change. This is in
sharp contrast to Jewish teaching that you must go through several
rituals to be forgiven of your sins. He is hanging with Tax
Collectors and prostitutes. . He turned the tables over in disgust
in the temple, now he’s affecting the economic structure. Jesus is
upsetting the system. And the Pharisees fear that he is up to
something. Perhaps he wants to be in charge? The Jewish powers are
so corrupt in their own minds they cannot see the love and
generosity that exudes from his midst.
The leaders project from
their weakness ideas about Jesus and seek to prove to the people he
is a hypocrite. On several occasions they attempt stir up the crowds
Jesus ministers to, hoping they will turn against him. It doesn’t
work. They use fear tactics to no avail. Finally, desperate they go
to the Roman government who’s in control of the region, to show them
that this man is now a threat to Roman power. It worked. The Romans
called him in and Pilate asked him a series of questions. Jesus was
so concise with his answers that the Roman Governor could only
conclude “I find no fault in him”. But this was not good enough for
the Jewish authorities. They wanted Jesus dead. He was a
troublemaker. In essence, Jesus was changing the system; he was
asking too many questions that weren’t supposed to be asked. He was
a revolutionary! Ultimately, the powers that be would use him as an
example of what will happen to folk who don’t know their place.
Questioning the system of power is a “no-no”. This was the message
being sent by the Jewish and Roman authorities.
I know you see what I see here, this story has been lived over and
over and over again in our modern day prophets who attempted to
speak truth to power. The same sort of things happened to Gandhi,
Buddha, King, post-Mecca Malcolm X, Joseph Priestly, there are so
many…
And so for me, I don’t spend a lot of time today asking whether
Jesus existed or wondering what color he was. None of that matters
now. I don’t spend time wondering if he was “begotten” of a virgin.
I don’t spend time wondering if he walked on water. I reflect, not
on the person, but the essence, the core of the story. The essence
of the message tells us of one who represented what humans call
goodness, sacrifice, and love. We are all capable of emulating this.
This is the essence found in the Sages. I reflect on all of the
heroic stories, in relation to my own life, and ask myself “What can
I do better?” Or “Can I do more with my life?” “Am I doing what I am
called to do?” “Can I make a difference?” “Am I afraid to step out
of my comfort zone?” The story of Jesus challenges me with many
questions. What about you? Does it move you to think outside the
box, to be a revolutionary thinker? Does it say to you give your all
with whatever you do? Does the story convey to you a powerful
message that shouts from the rooftop, “Children of humanity you are
free—LIVE! Be not encumbered by the dogma of religion but be free
and responsibly experience life in all of its fullness? Think about
that…
John Spong gives us something to ponder as I close: (Pg 131)
LIVE THE ESSENCE OF JESUS.
Thank you for your time this morning…
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