<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Thank’s John, for the reminder.<br class=""><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Hobo Std'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: 11px;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Josefin Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 28.8999996185303px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">“And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about”</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Hobo Std'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: 11px;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Josefin Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 28.8999996185303px; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>~Haruki Murakami</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Hobo Std'; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><span><img apple-inline="yes" id="C99BD331-4A7D-4C0A-A1B5-9D917167B8A7" src="cid:A2A0F8B9-75E4-4E52-B73D-800B6CF9E911" class=""></span><font color="#ff2600" style="font-family: 'Hobo Std'; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;" class="">❤</span> </font><font color="#0433ff" style="font-family: 'Hobo Std'; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><font size="4" class="">Frank</font> </font><font color="#0433ff" style="font-family: 'Hobo Std'; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""> </font>
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<br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Apr 15, 2017, at 10:19 AM, John Epps via OE <<a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net" class="">oe@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">Coming to terms with the meaning
of the Easter story for us is difficult since times and world-views have
changed. We find it difficult even to grasp what it meant for those who first
told it, much less for us. Yet we are compelled to try by Paul’s admonition,
“If Christ is not raised, then our faith is in vain.” (I Cor. 15:14)<span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">One factor in the story must be
recognized: this is a tale of a bodily resurrection, not a “spiritual” one. The
risen one takes pains to force people to touch his wounds and so dispel the
notion of an ectoplasmic appearance. Whatever the implications, they are
physical, this worldly. The second factor is that stories of dying and rising
gods (or superheroes) were widespread throughout the Ancient Near East and
ancient Greece. <span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">So what unique implications can
we draw from the story that are important today? Another way to ask it is
“Where today do we experience death and resurrection?”<span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">Both occur at the individual, natural,
and corporate levels. A word about each: Lately I have “died” when the classes
I have taught for 15 years were cancelled; I was “raised” when the University
called on me for 3 new classes. The slow and painful death of a dear aunt was
followed by a celebration honoring her life that brought back the wonder of her
artistry and love. These may seem trivial examples but dramatize the dynamics
in the story: Death/Resurrection happens to us all.<span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">In nature, “Resurrection” has
long been a metaphor for the return of plant life in the Spring, at least in
the Northern hemisphere. And certainly, the emergence of leaves on barren
trees, of green in brown fields, and flowers from “dead” plants seem quite
miraculous.<span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">At the corporate level, the death
and dying dynamic seems much more obvious that does resurrection. Many of our
hopes and dreams died with the November election. The horrors and complexity of
the Middle East conflicts and the appearance of global warming both represent a
death to life as we have known it. What resurrection will look like remains to
be seen. <span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">Numerous efforts taken for
environmental protection certainly mark an awakening to the need for change,
but are faint heralds of a resurrected life. Numerous conferences aimed at
achieving some sort of resolution of Middle East conflicts so far remain
fruitless. As the story goes, it’s God who does the raising, not us. And when
it occurs, it’s far beyond our expectations. As I have said elsewhere, “Humankind has unimaginable
capacities to screw things up; yet Mystery generates unaccountable wonders out
of our messes.” (<b class=""><i class=""><u class=""><span style="font-size:11pt" class="">Theology of Surprise</span></u></i></b>,
<span style="font-size:11pt" class="">p. 39</span>) Our current situation brings to
mind a sermon that we heard in the Philippines during the last days of Marcos.
It was entitled “It feels like Friday, but Sunday is A-Coming!”<span class=""></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal"><br class=""></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal">Whether we’re enmeshed in the
death or the resurrection part of the dynamic, both are operative. That’s what
Easter celebrates.<span class=""></span></p></div>
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