FYI: February 22 newsletter lost somewhere in cyber space...
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<h1 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">When
we close our hearts to
refugees</h1>
<a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ac33a967dc&e=7e96263227"><img style="border:0px initial;width:125px;height:108px;float:left;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" height="108" width="125" align="left" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/c5ed3e3e-57d0-4f58-ada6-d85039b0a36b.png"></a> Essay
by Rev. Irene Monroe March
1, 2018
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">President
Trump’s proclivity for
racist remarks comes as
no surprise to me. His
recent infamous comment
stating a preference for
immigrants coming from a
Scandinavian country
like Norway rather than
from Africa and Haiti
which he depicts as
“shithole” countries
with nothing to offer
the U.S is based solely
on his ignorance (Also,
Mr. President, Africa is
a continent.). As a
matter-of-fact, black
African immigrants are
the most educated
demographic group in the
U.S., surpassing those
of us born here- black
or white. According to
the Los Angeles Times,
they come from five
major countries:
Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,
Nigeria and South
African.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Since
Trump’s anti-immigration
comments I’ve been
thinking about the
biblical mandate in
Matthew 25: 35 that says
to welcome refugees.
Jesus speaks directly to
the issue where he says,
“For I was hungry and
you gave me something to
eat; I was thirsty and
you gave me something to
drink; I was a stranger
and you took me in.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Jesus
in this Matthew verse
speaks from experience
because he and his
parents, Mary and
Joseph, were Middle
Eastern refugees. The
nativity scene depicts
them desperately looking
for lodging, only to be
told there were no
vacancies. Soon after
Jesus’s birth, we learn
Mary and Joseph fled to
Egypt from violence with
their newborn as
refugees.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Holocaust
survivors speak from
experience of fleeing
violence, too:</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">“<em>Seventy-five
years ago my mother’s
family was being
murdered in Poland
because they could not
escape</em>,” said
Leora Tec, Founder and
Director of Bridge to
Poland, which offers
tours to Poland focusing
on Jewish life before
and after the Nazi’s
occupation. Her mother,
85 year-old Nechama Tec,
survived the Holocaust
by posing as a Catholic
girl sheltered by a
Catholic family and
wrote about her rescue
in her book, <em>When
Light Pierced the
Darkness: Christian
Rescue of Jews in
Nazi-Occupied Poland</em>.
Leora explains how the
fate of her mother and
her mother’s family may
have been different had
it not been for people
taking them in as
refugees, which is what
they were considered at
the time.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">“In
1946, after the war,
people wanted to murder
my grandfather in Poland
so my mother’s family
left. They were refugees
in Germany,” she said.
“Refugees are not a
caricature, a
uni-dimensional creation
of a limited mind. What
they really are are
human beings. They could
be you or me tomorrow,
and very likely there
were some in your
family’s not so distant
past.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Leora
added, “<em>knowing that
people will stand up
for others even under
the threat of death
gives me hope in these
dark times</em>.” Her
mother was fortunate to
have survived, but so
many others didn’t.
However, it is very
likely that they could
have, had the U.S.
opened their borders to
them – which is
strikingly foreshadowing
of what we are seeing
today with Trump’s
recent immigration
policies.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Oddly,
the first group of
settlers in America was
refugees- the Pilgrims.
And like refugees today,
the Pilgrims were
seeking a better life.
However, the Pilgrims,
who sought refuge here
in America from
religious persecution in
their homeland, were
right in their dogged
pursuit of religious
liberty, but their
actual practice of
religious liberty came
at the expense of the
civil rights of Native
Americans. The actions
of the Pilgrims brought
about the genocide of a
people, a historical
amnesia of the event,
and an annual national
celebration of
Thanksgiving for their
arrival. Trump views
refugees as bringing
harm to America, but the
only refugees who did so
were the Pilgrims.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">While
Trump’s comment will now
make it more difficult
for immigrants from
“shithole” countries to
enter the U.S., the
challenge, however, will
be particularly arduous
for its LGBTQ asylum
seekers. These people
flee their countries to
avoid criminalization,
torture, violence,
public persecution,
political scapegoating
and moral cleansing.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Many
of the governments they
flee argue they do not
like the world’s
interference in their
business, especially the
U.S. They contend that
being LGBTQ are
anathemas to African and
Afro-Caribbean
identities, cultural and
family values, and it’s
one of the many ills
brought over by white
Europeans (a similar
homo/transphobic polemic
still argued among
religious and uninformed
conservative African
Americans). Sadly, the
debate between”
authentically “African”
and Western colonial
remnants always finds
some way to dispute the
reality of the black
LGBTQ existence.
Therefore, coming out
LGBTQ in many of the
African and Caribbean
countries is dangerous.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">For
example, approximately
thirty-eight of
fifty-four countries in
the African continent
criminalizes same-gender
consensual activity.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">We
all have heard of the
human rights abuses of
Uganda’s LGBTQ
population. The
country’s
Anti-Homosexuality Bill
dubbed “Kill the Gays
bill” criminalized
same-sex relations. And,
depending on which
category your sexual
behavior was classified
as —” aggravated
homosexual” or “the
offense of
homosexuality”—you’d
either receive the death
penalty or if lucky life
imprisonment.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Gay
activist David Kato was
the father of Uganda’s
LGBTQ rights movement.
He didn’t live to
receive either
punishment. Kato, beaten
to death with a hammer,
was murdered in January
2011.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">John
“Longjones” Abdallah
Wambere, a friend of
Kato’s and co-founder of
Spectrum, an LGBTQ
rights organization, is
an activist too. Fleeing
from persecution Wambere
was approved asylum in
2014. He now lives in my
‘hood” of Cambridge, MA.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">And
last summer, at the 2017
DignityUSA conference in
Boston, Warry Joanita
Ssenfuka, director of
Freedom and Roam Uganda
(FARUG), spoke on being
a Catholic lesbian
activist in Uganda,
where LGBTQI people have
no legal protections,
and frequently suffer
violence and
imprisonment. Ssenfuka
is a plaintiff in
“Sexual Minorities
Uganda v. Scott Lively.”
Lively, a white racist,
homophobic Pentecostal
pastor of Springfield,
Massachusetts, is
accused of persecuting
LGBTQI people abroad,
resulting in the
introduction of an
Anti-Homosexuality Bill
he helped engineer in
Uganda, which was
prosecuted as a crime
against humanity under
international law.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Throughout
the African continent,
there are stories of
homophobic bullying,
trans bashing, and every
kind of abuse of its
LGBTQ population.
However, the one country
you don’t expect to hear
anti- LGBTQ rhetoric and
human rights abuses from
is South Africa.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">South
Africa is the first
African country to
support openly LGBTQ
civil rights. But South
Africa has a problem
with its LGBTQ
population, especially
its lesbians. South
Africa’s method to
remedy the problem with
lesbians is “corrective
rape.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">On
any given day in South
Africa, lesbians are
twice as likely to be
sexually molested,
raped, and gang-raped
than heterosexual women.
A reported estimate of
at least 500 lesbians
are victims of
“corrective rape” per
year. And in Western
Cape, a province in the
south west of South
Africa, a report put out
by the Triangle Project
in 2008 stated that as
many as 86 percent of
its lesbian population
live in fear of being
raped.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">And,
in Haiti, a country that
is predominately Roman
Catholic homosexuality
is condemned. Among
Haiti’s LGBTQ middle and
profession classes they
find ways to socialize
out of the public
“gaydar” and with
impunity. However, for
the poorer classes of
LGBTQ Haitians who live,
work and socialize in
the densely populated
and impoverished capitol
city of Port-au-Prince
and its countryside,
discrimination on the
basis of their sexual
orientation and gender
expressions is
commonplace. The 2002
documentary “ Des Hommes
et Dieux (Of Men and
Gods)” by anthropologist
Anne Lescot exposed the
daily struggles of
Haitian transwomen.
Blondine in the film
said, “When people
insult me because I wear
a dress I am not ashamed
of how I am. Masisis
(gay males) can’t walk
down the street in a wig
and dress.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Regrettably,
a certain group within
white evangelicalism
agree with Trump’s
stance on refugees. For
example, Rev. Franklin
Graham, the president of
the international
Christian relief
organization Samaritan’s
Purse, said immigration
is ‘not a Bible issue.’</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">“It’s
not a biblical command
for the country to let
everyone in who wants to
come, that’s not a Bible
issue,” Graham told
HuffPost. “We want to
love people, we want to
be kind to people, we
want to be considerate,
but we have a country
and a country should
have order and there are
laws that relate to
immigration and I think
we should follow those
laws. .”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">However,
the Christian Right
needs to listen to the
right Christians. Last
February this time more
than five hundred
prominent evangelicals
from across the country
took out a full-page ad
supporting refugees.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">“Our
care for the oppressed
and suffering is rooted
in the call of Jesus to
“love our neighbor as we
love ourselves.” In the
story of the Good
Samaritan (Luke
10:25-37), Jesus makes
it clear that our
“neighbor” includes the
stranger and anyone
fleeing persecution and
violence, regardless of
their faith or country,”
the letter stated.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">“As
Christians, we are
committed to praying for
our elected officials.
Our prayer is that God
would grant President
Trump and all our
leaders divine wisdom as
they direct the course
of our nation.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Trump’s
administration may very
well make it difficult
for Africans and
Haitians to come to the
U.S. But, he cannot stop
asylum seekers.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Legally,
it is a universal human
right to seek asylum,
and the U.S has been
offering asylum to LGBTQ
people from around the
world since 1994. And,
morally, governments
have an obligation to
come to the aid of those
fleeing persecution, a
minimum standard any
decent government
recognizes.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">When
we close our hearts and
doors to refugees, we
close ourselves from the
world.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">~
Rev. Irene Monroe
Read online <a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=d996cd3a78&e=7e96263227">here</a>
<strong>About the Author</strong>
The Reverend Monroe is
an ordained minister.
She does a weekly Monday
segment, “All Revved
Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM),
a Boston member station
of National Public Radio
(NPR), that is now a
podcast, and a weekly
Friday commentator on
New England Channel NEWS
(NECN). Monroe is the
Boston voice for
Detour’s African
American Heritage Trail,
a <a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=3c9b96f999&e=7e96263227">Guided
Walking Tour of Beacon
Hill: Boston’s Black
Women Abolitionists</a>.
Monroe’s a Huffington
Post blogger and a
syndicated religion
columnist. Her columns
appear in cities across
the country and in the
U.K, Ireland, Canada.
Monroe writes a column
in the Boston home LGBTQ
newspaper Baywindows,
Cambridge Chronicle,
and Opinion pieces for
the Boston Globe.
Monroe stated that her
"columns are an
interdisciplinary
approach drawing on
critical race theory,
African American, queer
and religious studies.
As a religion columnist
I try to inform the
public of the role
religion plays in
discrimination against
lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer
people. Because
homophobia is both a
hatred of the “other”
and it’s usually acted
upon ‘in the name of
religion,” by reporting
religion in the news I
aim to highlight how
religious intolerance
and fundamentalism not
only shatters the goal
of American democracy,
but also aids in
perpetuating other forms
of oppression such as
racism, sexism, classism
and anti-Semitism.”
Her papers are at the
Schlesinger Library at
Radcliffe College's
research library on the
history of women in
America.</p>
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<h1 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Question
& Answer</h1>
<h3 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"> </h3>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:18px"><strong>Q:
By Ginny from Canada</strong></span>
<em>What Bible
translation would you
recommend for a
progressive?</em></p>
<h3 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">
<span style="font-size:18px"><strong>A:
By Rev. Gretta
Vosper</strong></span></h3>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=eaa28b429f&e=7e96263227"><img style="border:0px;width:125px;height:145px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;outline:none;text-decoration:none" height="145" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/9d1fabc2-63f8-4f38-b027-d0d499a4a6ce.png"></a> Dear
Ginny,</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">I
am fortunate to work
with a congregation that
challenges me to choose
readings for each Sunday
that are not from the
Bible. We use texts that
offer us the opportunity
to explore major issues
related to being human.
They come from ancient
and modern literature,
poetry and pop culture,
movie scripts and love
letters. As long as they
are worthy of the people
who will receive them,
and fall within the
purposes of our
gathering – to ground
ourselves in the
interconnectedness of
life, to be guided in
our choices by love, and
to grow in wisdom – we
can read it.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">That
doesn’t mean that I
don’t read the Bible.
Each week, I read its
lectionary passages and
find within them a theme
I use to create the
Sunday Gathering. The
passages I read,
however, are not for
that Sunday; they are
for the following year.
I work a year ahead so I
can create resources for
clergy who use the
lectionary but wish to
explore non- or
post-theistic themes.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Many
of my peers use the New
Revised Standard Version
(NRSV) because it is the
updated version of the
classic Revised Standard
Version (RSV) upon which
many of us grew up.
Published in 1989, the
editors recognized that
much misunderstanding
had entered into the
interpretation of the
text because English is
inherently biased toward
the masculine. In order
to mitigate such abuse
of the text, all
references to humanity
are gender-neutral. So
it is really one of the
better “inclusive
language” texts despite
it continuing to provide
exclusively male
language in references
to God. At the very
least, I would recommend
that you not read
anything that hasn’t
managed to get to a
place of gender
neutrality with respect
to humanity.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Oral
reading of any sort in
any setting, unless done
by someone with
excellent reading
skills, can be
snore-inducing. There is
nothing compelling about
something badly read.
But when you start with
a text that is already
verbally challenging,
you may as well provide
several minutes of
silence. That is the
NRSV from the pulpit. It
is wooden, difficult,
and uninspiring. Whether
you are looking for a
book to read to your
congregation in Sunday
services or a book to
inspire you with the
depth and breadth of the
skill and wonder of the
biblical poets and
authors, I would invite
you to steer clear of
the New Revised Standard
Version.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Not
surprisingly, given that
it began as the result
of explorations of how
English is both read and
heard, the Contemporary
English Version (CEV)
avoids the challenges
the NRSV falls into. You
might call it the Good
News Bible (GNB) for
subsequent generations
despite the fact that it
has no official
relationship to the GNB
and none of the GNB’s
iconic line drawings.
It, too, provides
gender-neutral language
except for references to
God. I have used the CEV
since it was first
published in 1995,
finding it easier to
share orally and easier
to consume privately.
Indeed, it is written
for a lower reading
level than the GNB and
miles below the NRSV.
But don’t let that make
you feel stupid. You’re
not. You simply want to
enjoy reading something
written for people two
thousand years ago.
Keeping that simple is
one of the hardest
things to do.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The
CEV, my favourite, is
now over twenty years
old. There may be newer,
more engaging versions
available. If you really
want to read the Bible,
explore and find
something that you will
satisfy you. These few
tests will help you find
a version you’ll want to
go back to over and
again: look several
versions up online to
see what the principles
guiding the writing
were, specifically, if
they included gender
neutrality – that’s an
easy test of
contemporary
sensitivities; choose a
passage (not a
favourite) and read it
in as many versions as
you need to find one you
like then check out your
favourite passages. If
you like your favourites
even in the new version,
you have found a new
friend. If not, keep
looking.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Reading
the Bible is a pastime
in which an enormous
amount of time is
invested. Your time is
limited. Choose what you
read wisely. And if it
is a Bible, make it a
good one.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">~
Rev. Gretta Vosper
Read and share online <a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=a4c04deafa&e=7e96263227">here</a>
<strong>About the Author</strong>
The Rev. Gretta Vosper
is a United Church of
Canada minister who is
an atheist. Her
best-selling books
include <em>With or
Without God: Why The
Way We Live is More
Important Than What We
Believe</em>, and <em>Amen:
What Prayer Can Mean
in a World Beyond
Belief</em>. She has
also published three
books of poetry and
prayers.
</p>
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<h1 style="text-align:center;display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal">Bishop
John Shelby Spong
Revisited</h1>
<h3 style="text-align:center;display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal">The
Connection between the
Crucifixion and the
Passover Part VI</h3>
Essay by Bishop John
Shelby Spong on March 9,
2005
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left"><img style="border:0px;width:125px;height:125px;margin-right:10px;outline:none;text-decoration:none" height="125" width="125" align="left" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/84fbd945-363f-48e0-97f1-129010755fed.jpg"> Today,
as a way to round out
this series on the
biblical accounts of the
crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus,
events which most
scholars date around 30
CE, I want to take what
might seem to some to be
a detour. I will line up
these biblical sources
in their chronological
order, which stretches
from about 50 to 100 CE.
I will then walk you, my
readers, through this
material from the first
writings to the last,
pointing out overt
contradictions, places
where the story grows,
and illustrations of how
the miraculous has been
heightened. In this
manner I hope to
demonstrate the
inadequacy of trying to
interpret the Bible
literally. My goal is to
assist my readers to
step into a new vision
of the reality of the
resurrection, which
requires first a step
away from our blurred,
culturally imposed
understanding of Easter.
The old vision is
primarily a collage
drawn from several
incompatible sources. It
is biblically
inaccurate, and is not
informed by any of the
scholarship of the last
200 years. Still in many
places even within the
Christian Church, that
understanding of Easter
continues to masquerade
as “orthodoxy.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">I
begin with Paul, the
first writer in the New
Testament, and in
particular with I
Corinthians, an epistle
dated around 55 CE. This
is not only the earliest
written account of the
final events in Jesus’
life that we possess,
but it is the <u>only</u> account
the Christian Church had
until the early
seventies. We need to
recognize that Paul had
died before the first
gospel was written; so
step number one in the
interpretive process is
not to read Paul through
the images created in
the later gospels about
which Paul knew
absolutely nothing.
Those people, who seem
to think that Paul took
the simple religion of
Jesus found in the
gospels and corrupted it
into convoluted
theology, do not
understand anything
about early
Christianity. The
gospels assume the
writings of Paul. Paul
does not assume the
writings of the gospels.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">The
first thing one notices,
when Paul is isolated
and treated as the
oldest Christian source,
is that there are no
narrative details
connected with his
descriptions of the
final events in the life
of Jesus. All that Paul
says about the
crucifixion is that,
“Christ died for our
sins in accordance with
the scriptures.” In this
Pauline material, there
are no stories about
Gethsemane, the
betrayal, the trial, the
torture, the crown of
thorns, the two thieves,
the behavior of the
crowd, the words from
the cross, or the
darkness at noon. There
is no mention of the
moment when Jesus
breathed his last.
Perhaps Paul knew
nothing about these
stories. Perhaps he knew
about them but chose not
to relay these details.
Those are the only
options. Since human
experience suggests that
stories grow in the
telling, the former is
far more probable than
the latter.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Next
Paul says that following
Jesus’ death, “He was
buried.” Note that there
is no mention of a tomb,
or of Joseph of
Arimathea. The
suggestion is that he
knew nothing about
either tradition. Then
Paul says quite sparsely
that, “He was raised on
the third day in
accordance with the
scriptures.” There is no
account of the women
coming to the tomb on
the first day of the
week and finding it
empty. Certainly there
is no suggestion that
these women ever saw the
risen Christ. Indeed,
Paul relates no
narrative content
describing anyone’s
experience of ‘seeing’
the risen Christ. He
simply lists those to
whom, he asserts, Jesus
had appeared. They were
in Paul’s order: Cephas
(i.e. Simon Peter), the
twelve, 500 brethren,
James, the Apostles and
finally Paul. Though
this is the earliest
list of witnesses we
have, it is nonetheless
full of questions. Why
does Paul say that Jesus
appeared to the twelve?
Does that mean that he
did not know about
Judas? Matthew will say
later that the first
time the risen Christ
appeared to the
disciples, it was only
to the “eleven.” It was
at least 35 years after
the death of Paul before
the story of Matthias
being chosen to succeed
Judas entered the
Christian story. Who
were the 500 brethren?
There is no hint in any
of the later gospels
that anyone has been
able to correlate with
that Pauline reference.
Who was James? There are
only three
possibilities: James,
the son of Zebedee,
James, the son of
Alphaeus, and James, the
brother of Jesus. Which
one does Paul mean? Who
were “the Apostles?” Are
they different from the
twelve? Paul appears to
think so. Finally, Paul
says, “he appeared to
me.” Please note that
Paul is claiming that
his experience of
‘seeing’ the risen
Christ was like all the
others except that his
was last. Since no one I
know thinks that Paul
confronted a Jesus who
had physiologically
walked out of a tomb, it
begs the question as to
what the earliest
Christians meant by the
resurrection of Jesus.
The best estimate as to
the date of Paul’s
conversion, according to
church historian Adolph
Harnack, was one to six
years after the
crucifixion. In either
case, Paul’s witness is
that what he saw was no
different from that
which all the others on
his list saw. This fact
certainly works against
anyone attempting to
claim that the
resurrection of Jesus
involved a physical,
bodily resuscitation.
That is all Paul says
about the crucifixion,
burial and resurrection
which means that this
was all the Christian
Church had in writing
until Mark wrote in the
eighth decade.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Having
previously looked at
Mark’s story of Jesus’
passion in this series,
I will focus in this
column only on what Mark
specifically adds to the
developing Easter story
(see 16:1-8). Mark
introduces the women.
They are Mary Magdalene,
Mary, the mother of
James, and Salome. He
says these women go to
Jesus’ tomb “to anoint
him.” As they journey
they wonder how they
will roll back the stone
from “the door of the
tomb.” To their surprise
on arrival they find it
already rolled away. How
that happened is not
explained. They enter
the open tomb only to
see, not an angel, but a
young man dressed in a
white robe who announces
that Jesus has been
raised and urges them to
go tell Peter and the
disciples, “he is going
before you to Galilee,
there you will see him.”
That is all Mark says
about the resurrection.
Please note that the
risen Christ never
appears to anyone in
Mark’s gospel. The
authentic part of Mark’s
text ends with the women
fleeing in fear and
saying nothing to
anyone. This means that
when the early church
had only the writings of
Paul and Mark, which is
all that existed prior
to the 9th decade, there
was not yet a
description of a
physically resuscitated
body that would lead
anyone to believe that
the resurrection was
understood as the
restoration to life in
this world of the three
days dead Jesus.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Matthew
finally introduces that
idea in his gospel,
which is generally dated
in the mid-eighties.
There is no doubt that
Matthew had Mark in
front of him when he
composed his work, so by
reading them both we can
watch the changes that
Matthew makes in Mark’s
text. Matthew drops
Salome from Mark’s list
of the women who came to
the tomb at dawn. He
gives no purpose for
that visit as Mark had
done. Matthew has also
added an earthquake in
which an angel descends
out of the sky and rolls
the stone away. Matthew,
who alone had added a
retinue of Temple police
to stand watch at the
tomb to guard against
any miraculous
circumstances occurring,
now says that the
appearance of this angel
caused that guard to
become so fearful, they
“became like dead men.”
Matthew has the angel
tell the women that
Jesus has been raised,
and to urge them to tell
the disciples that Jesus
“is going before you to
Galilee; there you will
see him.” Contrary to
Mark’s account, in which
the women “said nothing
to anyone,” Matthew’s
women obediently go at
once to tell the
disciples. Jesus meets
them in the garden and
speaks to them. The
women, Matthew says,
“took hold of his
(presumably physical)
feet and worshiped him.”
That is the first
account in Christian
written history
suggesting that the
resurrection was somehow
physical. A minimum of
50 years has passed
since the time of the
crucifixion.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Matthew
then adds further
intrigue to his story
about the guards. When
they awakened and found
the tomb empty they
plotted to tell people
that his disciples stole
his body while they were
asleep. Matthew
concludes his narrative
by relating that
promised appearance of
the risen Christ in
Galilee. It took place
on a mountaintop. Jesus
appears to have come out
of the sky, clothed with
the “authority of heaven
and earth.” He
commissions them “to go
into all the world and
promises that he, Jesus,
will be with them “to
the close of the age.”</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">When
we move to Luke’s
gospel, which is
generally dated between
88-93, the story has
grown even more. In Luke
the women go to the tomb
with spices as if to
finish the burial
process. The list of
women is once again
different. The named
ones are Magdalene,
Mary, the mother of
James, and Joanna, but
Luke covers his bases by
saying that some other
women were also there.
The announcing figure,
who was a young man in a
white robe in Mark and a
supernatural angel in
Matthew, has now become
two supernatural angels
in Luke. The promise
that the disciples will
meet the risen Christ in
Galilee has, however,
been dropped. Luke will
deny any association of
Galilee with
resurrection. The women,
who do not see Jesus in
Luke, report these
things to the disciples.
Luke then adds the
Emmaus Road story, told
nowhere else in
scripture. In this
narrative Cleopas and
his partner recognize
Jesus in the breaking of
the bread, then rush
back to Jerusalem to
tell the disciples, only
to be told that Jesus
has by now already
appeared to Simon Peter.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">While
they are talking, Jesus
appears. This is the
first moment in written
Christian history in
which the risen Jesus
and his disciples are
said to have come
together in Jerusalem.
Jesus is very physical.
He offers his flesh for
inspection. He asks for
food to eat. He opens
their minds to
understand the
scriptures that explain
why Christ had to
suffer. Then, telling
them to remain in
Jerusalem until they are
clothed with power from
on high, he led them out
to Bethany and parted
from them by being
carried up into heaven.
Later, when Luke writes
Acts, he will put 40
days between the
resurrection and the
ascension. That is not
so in his gospel.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">Finally
in John, writing near
the turn of the first
century, only one woman,
Magdalene goes to the
tomb. She finds the
stone rolled away and
runs to report this to
Simon Peter and the
“disciple whom Jesus
loved,” both of whom
have come to the tomb to
verify her story. It is
here that the story of
the grave clothes,
wrapped neatly in two
separate places as if
Jesus has simply risen
out of them, first comes
into the Christian
tradition. The disciples
return to their place of
hiding while Magdalene
comes back to the tomb
to mourn. She looks
again into the tomb and
this time sees two
angels who inquire as to
the cause of her tears.
“Because they have taken
away my Lord and I do
not know where they have
laid him, she replies.”
Then Jesus appears.
Mistaking him for the
gardener, she asks him
where he has placed the
body so that she might
reclaim it. He speaks
her name. Magdalene
recognizes him. He tells
her that he has not yet
ascended and urges her
to go tell the disciples
that “I am ascending.”
She obeys and exits.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">That
evening, John continues,
the now ascended Jesus
appears to the disciples
inside a locked room. He
breathes on them and
says, “Receive the Holy
Spirit.” Thomas is
absent. A week later the
story is repeated with
Thomas present. Jesus
offers his wounds for
inspection. Thomas
believes. The narrative
concludes. However, in
the next chapter,
another resurrection
story, this time set in
Galilee not Jerusalem,
is told by John. Peter
is confronted and told
to “feed my sheep.” Then
John concludes the
chapter and the book a
second time.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">These
are the raw biblical
data. Next week I will
seek to interpret these
narratives in the final
section of this series
leading us toward
Easter.</p>
<p style="margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left">~
John Shelby Spong</p>
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<h1 class="aolmail_m_-8877184950195836862null" style="text-align:center;display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal">Announcements</h1>
<h2 class="aolmail_m_-8877184950195836862null" style="text-align:center;display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal"><font size="4"><strong><a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=c951ebbb72&e=7e96263227"><img style="border:0px;width:125px;height:135px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;outline:none;text-decoration:none" height="135" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/4915ed4c-7767-45c3-b031-2ddd9b4c13f7.jpg"></a>A
Grateful Evening
with Diana Butler
Bass</strong></font></h2>
<p style="text-align:left;margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%"><strong>The
Arizona Foundation for
Contemporary Theology</strong> is
excited to welcome <strong>Diana
Butler-Bass</strong> to
Phoenix on <strong>March
1st, 2018 </strong>at
7 p.m. This “grateful”
evening will be in
Nelson Hall at the
Church of the Beatitudes
Church,
<a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=5dfe4860e0&e=7e96263227">555 W
Glendale Ave, Phoenix,
AZ</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;margin:10px0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%">
Click <a style="color:#2baadf;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=f0f7377343&e=7e96263227">here </a>for
more information.</p>
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