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ARE YOU REBORN?
by John T. Crestwell, Jr.

Today, millions celebrate the Life of Jesus who some call Yeshua ben Nazareth, the “messiah” the king of the world, who is said to have been raised from the dead to eternal life as king of kings and lord of lords…

Many people don’t think about what this means.  They simply say, “It’s Easter.  Let us put on some fine clothing and go to church at least one time this year.”  Others go to church and hear very moving cantatas and hymns and gospel songs about a story of life, death, and resurrection.  It is a moving story indeed…  But do we think about what it means beyond the literalism?

For those of us who call ourselves Unitarian Universalists, it can be difficult to find meaning in Easter or Christmas for that matter.  For many of us, it is time to hear the dogmatic shouts of many who we think scarcely know what they are celebrating—that’s what some of us may think…  But, I wonder if WE KNOW what Easter is all about?  I wonder if there is more for us to learn from this ancient story…  What am I talking about?

We could spend time discussing the many biblical errors with our very concise intellectual exegesis (interpretation).  Sure, we could do that—I do some of that.  I just said to my mother this week, “Momma, if Jesus was in the ground for three days or was raised on the third day and he died on Friday evening, then he would have come back to life on Monday evening not Sunday morning.  Somebody didn’t know how to count”.    

Sure, we could dissect and disconnect the religious heritage of millions but I don’t think the full answer is there for us.   I think we must search externally; but we will miss the message if we do not look internally within our own person as well.  What I mean is that we should spend this occasion, this special day, looking in the mirror and not through the magnifying glass.   So if I could, for a few moments, I would like to look without and then within to find the meaning of Easter for us today…

First, for me, the Easter story is an ancient allegorical tale that follows a heritage that runs deep mythologically.   We find the same themes in narratives that are thousands of years older—stories found in Egypt and Greece to name a few places… 

In Egypt, there is a famous ancient story of Isis and Osiris (not our new member Isis Johnson by the way but this is where here name originates).  Isis was the goddess of love who married the god of fertility, Osiris.   His brother Set is jealous (just like in the story of Cain and Abel) and, as the story goes, Set kills Osiris, cuts his body into many pieces, and puts the pieces over many different parts of the world.   Isis persistently searches for her husband and finds the pieces of him over time; and because of her amazing love and power, she magically puts him back together and then breathes the breath of life back into his corpse.  Osiris and Isis immediately procreate and give birth to Horus who would later slay Set.   Today, Isis is still known as the goddess of love.  Osiris is still referred to as the god of fertility but also the god of the underworld who “defeated death” and has power over death.  Horus would become known as the god of the living and Set, the god of evil and later Set becomes the mythological Satan in the Hebrew scriptures.

If you are listening carefully, you have many common themes.  Here, you have a story of life, the evil in the world that brings death, the defeat of death because of a great love, which is the real power in the story; and this love brings about rebirth or resurrection.  This love defeated death and asks it, “Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?”  Familiar themes…

This story has had a major impact on the religious formation of most myths past and present.  As an example, if you could get to France, there are statues honoring Isis and Horus.  For many years scholars thought they were   carvings of Mary holding the baby Jesus, the “Madonna”, but in fact, they proved to be Isis holding her son Horus.   As I said, this story runs deep… 

The mythology of life—death—resurrection reemerges many years later in Greek mythology, hundreds of years before the story of Christ enters human history.  Take as an example the account of Dionysus who was a human god born immaculately by the high god Zeus.   He is known as a “twice born” deity because he is said to have been born in his mother’s womb, but she was killed by her husband Zeus while pregnant, so Zeus takes the child out the womb and places him in his thigh to be born. (Talk about drama).  But if you read between the lines you hear the theme of being born again right there with the birth of Dionysus.  Now, Dionysus was the god of fertility, just like Osiris.  He was also the god of bread and wine who had the power to raise the dead or bring people back from the underworld, just like Osiris and Jesus.   In the story, Dionysus travels the land telling people he is a god only to be mocked and crucified over and over.  Strangely enough each time he is killed he is brought back to life.  As a result he becomes known as the dying and resurrected god of fertility or god of the vine.   The one thing I can say I really liked about Dionysus is he loved a good glass of wine.  Amen. And I’m sure the Catholics and Episcopalians would agree!

And so, what is Osiris in Egypt becomes Dionysus in Greece, which becomes Attis in Asia Minor, and Adonis in Syria, and Bacchus in Italy, and Mithras in Persia, and Jesus in Jerusalem, and so on and so forth…  Many cultures had their dying and resurrected saviors who had power over death.

Over time, these god-men were placed at the center of very sacred rituals in the mystery cults and religions of Greece and Rome and this continued until the Emperor Constantine made the Christian story the absolute truth.  But the beliefs and rituals varied from place to place while those mystery cults lasted.  Either way, there was more than often, an esoteric message of life—death—rebirth being promulgated.  But the message now was not just about the god’s magical power, but the initiates’ inner power to experience   death and rebirth.     The message becomes and internal message that said to the practitioner that they must die to the flesh and be reborn as a spirit being—into a new psychological state.   I want to get back to that…

This theme of rebirth also runs deep into European society with what we call Easter which is a transliterated word for a European goddess of fertility or goddess of spring.  We are, in this time of the year, springing forth from the dead, cold of winter, to the warmth and life of springtime.   We are moving from hibernation to participation… Again, the theme life, death, and renewal…  And so, what is it about this idea that has moved generations? 

Perhaps the idea comes to us naturally and biologically.   We live on an ever changing planet.  Gaia, mother earth, is giving birth, and then shedding her skin, in a sense—dying and being reborn—everyday, every year, every second...  We watch the seasons change—the flowers come and go.  We can look at BUG and animal life and we can look at our own lives and see the change process over and over and over—it is continuous...  The process communicates to us intuitively that life is cyclical and ongoing—seemingly eternal (the process)...  Perhaps our mythologies are a natural extension of our oneness with this planet.  Life—death—and resurrection is exactly what happens to the earth and to us.  We are homoousian (of the same substance) as mother earth.  Perhaps humans are structured out to naturally to follow the self-regulatory processes of Gaia and our mythologies help us deal with the process and in fact have developed as a result of the process?  Unfortunately, if we think in these terms, we are left with a feeling of vulnerability, as if we are a mere pawn in the natural selection process.  How can we find meaning in life and in Easter if we are merely acting as biological organisms?

I rarely make an absolute statement. (that  drives a lot of people crazy I guess).  But I would like to say there is an Easter message.  There is a purpose for human life.  Easter speaks to me from Egypt, Greece, Europe and America; Easter speaks to me and tells me through its many stories, that life comes and goes and comes again, but there is an eternal message for all of creation.  That message says that you may know the beginning and know the end of the book—every animal and earthly species has the same book—the same ending; but, children of humanity, it is how you write or live the pages in between—that is what really matters!  And so, for me, when my Good Friday comes, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me— I just know that I will die.  But this I do know with calm assurance, that if I am fortunate enough to be able to look back over my life with the few days or hours I have left, I am not going to be thinking about how much money I have or who I want to leave this or that too…  I’m not going to be thinking about how many homes or cars I possessed.  I’m not going to be thinking about the stuff I did to pay the bills every month; I’m not going to be thinking about the many jobs I excelled at and the awards and honors I received…   Rather, I’m going to want to be with the ones I love—  I’m going to hope that I made a difference in someone else’s life.  I’m going hope that I spoke a kind enough word to those who needed support.  I’m going to hope that I gave as much as I could to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and visit those in prison!  If you are listening, it’s the interpersonal relationships that really matter in life and these relationships extend not just to our own family but to the families of the world.  This, for me, gives my life meaning and purpose.  I live to give a piece of myself to others.

Love is the message in the mythologies and love emerges as the permanent in this transient world.  Love from human to human has always been the mighty force that has changed individuals, communities and nations.  You see, Easter is not just a story about one man dying because he loved the people so much, rather it is a message to the person in the mirror, asking them to love more, care more and give even more……  It is not just a story about one man’s sacrifice for sake of the world, but it is asking you to sacrifice your life for the sake of the world.  It is not just a story about a divine man’s agony over human life.  Rather it is a story about the agony we should all share over the tragedies in human life.  It is not just a story about the literal death and rebirth of the “anointed one”.  Rather, it is asking us to find the god within us, which will transform our life and the lives of others.   John Donne said it well:

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