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<h2 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;"><span style="font-size:20px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Christ Heart: Discovery of Holy Mystery</span></span></h2>
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<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Essay by Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D.<br>
June 23, 2022</span></span></span><br>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">What is a heart alive with compassion and joy and spontaneity? A heart not continually weighed down by drivenness, anger, and fear? A heart at rest? A heart wholly embodied, not walled-off in pain and searching for someone or something to hurt?</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">I call this the Christ Heart, a heart awakening as Holy Mystery. Buddhism speaks of realizing Buddha Heart. In Christianity there is Christ heart: a human being awake and alive and engaged with the world in its suffering and its longing to be free.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong>Looking and Longing</strong><br>
Once we have separated and individuated ourself from our primary caretaker – who most often is our mother – our sense of who we are becomes a conglomeration of the many object-relations in our life. We have an ever-evolving sense of our self in ever-changing relationships and there is the affective bond, or felt-feeling, between the two. One feelings we long for most – and it is more than a feeling – is that of fullness, rest, completion: all qualities of love. In the language of spiritual poetry, our young heart is searching for the Holy Land, the New Jerusalem, the Garden of Eden, of the soul.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">There are many names in poetry, all signifying that the deepest longing of the human heart is universal. We are searching for that <em>object</em> that will fully and completely satisfy the soul. We are longing for that <em>something</em> that will bring us rest, allow us a secure inner peace, and set us free from being driven by oh so many things. This, at least, is how the spiritual journey initially is experienced and understood.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">We long to sense in our bones that we are whole, complete, beautiful – perfect as we are with all our imperfections. We are seeking love; love that abides without fail, and that invites our soul into wondrous exploration of this present moment, and all such moments, whatever they might be. This is true freedom. The capacity to be the truth of what we are regardless of circumstance. This is love without conditions. Boundless love.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">I find it helpful to distinguish three stages in the human spiritual journey: Discovery of Holy Mystery, Living with Holy Mystery, and Awakening as Holy Mystery. The spiritual journey is the unfolding path of becoming an authentic, free, spontaneous, and thriving human being. The fruit of this journey, in our awakening as Holy Mystery, is also the realization of being Christ Heart. We awaken as compassionate, joyful, persons aware that all creatures are innately good because their true nature is Holy Mystery. In this initial reflection we’ll plumb some of the meaning of Discovery.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong>Discovery of Holy Mystery</strong><br>
For most of us there is an early experience of love touching our being. Maybe it’s when a neighbor gazed gently into your eyes as they lifted you from the pavement after having fallen and badly skinned our knees. As their eyes met yours there was simple kindness, generosity without measure. Although you couldn’t name it at the time, you felt safe in a pool of boundless love in their kind, gentle eyes. Or perhaps a friend or parent embraced your shoulder as you slumped under the weight of having failed to be accepted into a group or club or team. Or there was a time you laid upon the soft July grass, grounded upon mother earth, relaxing as the endless azure sky bathed your being. We each have our experiences.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Each of these is an initial experience of boundless love that unfolds without end. Love is not a thing but the texture of life itself – <em>the fluid fabric of being</em>. Life-as-love is graciously enfolding our being and inviting us to trustingly unfold. We have an inchoate sense that we are whole, we are complete, and we are beautiful. This incipient feeling of innate goodness then rubs up against our daily experiences of being not enough, inadequate, incomplete, and dissatisfied. Love as the fluid fabric of being tends to recede into the chimeric realm of faded memory.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Our soul has been partially awakened, however, in these powerful experiences of grace. They remind us, not consciously for the most part, that we arise from a Source that is good, and at that arising, we are primordially whole – regardless of what the culture and our ordinary mind may say. The truth of our nature is that we are complete. We are beautiful. We lack nothing. We are beings of love unfolding. It is only because we have this deep sense of Reality that we recognize our ordinary self’s relentless drivenness as somehow misguided.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Without consciously knowing it, we have encountered Holy Mystery, which is boundless love forever unfolding. We have tasted, touched, heard, and smelled something extraordinary in an utterly ordinary encounter. A traditional word for this encounter is sacrament. Life is pregnant with love since love is the fluid fabric of being. Creation ceaselessly gives birth in and through ordinary acts of intimate care and generosity. Reality is Holy because in its essence it is always whole. But our conventional self doesn’t feel or believe that to be true. We believe our inner critic that we are deficient. But in the recesses of our being there is a soul-compass that knows true <em>north</em>. That soul knowledge is what invites us to continue our search. Discovery is about trusting our longing to realize the truth about our nature.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Our hearts know, without knowing, that there is something more to life than our conventional self would have us believe. This something more is not a <em>thing </em>that fills a hole we believe we have. It is not a <em>thing</em> that satisfies our dissatisfaction. The <em>more</em> is a <em>less</em>. The more is the realization, the awakening, to the truth about who and what we are. We need less than we believe because the truth is that we are always already whole. We need less in the sense that to discover what is already true about our being we need to divest ourself of our daily preoccupations and develop a consciousness that is pruned from distraction and more focused.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">At the start of our spiritual journey, we are slowly realizing there is more to life than being driven to do and accomplish and succeed. There is more to life than winning the admiration of parents and friends, and the accolades of colleagues. There is more to life than our regular stops to fill ourself up from being depleted from the daily grind.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Our early encounters with being touched – being graced – by someone’s love, or some creature’s beauty, draw forth our heart to begin the spiritual journey. We want to discover the Source of our self. We want the moon to press her face once more upon our being. We want to drink in those azure waters of sky and sea so that they fill every pore and touch every cell of our being. We want to flow as easily as a river to the sea, nurturing and caressing all in its path.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">We long to discover as conscious adults, to know with an awake heart, that we are beloved beings; we are the fluid fabric of being. A discovery that allows the encrusted layers of deficiency, shame, guilt to fall away like exhausted autumn leaves.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">When Jesus makes his way down to the Jordan River, allowing John to bathe his body in those living waters, his journey is the human sojourn of the heart to discover the Source of our being. I don’t know when he was touched as a boy by the eyes or hands or voice of love. Maybe he received kindness in the eyes of Mary, a river of love coursing through the difficult life of being a Jewish boy of unknown paternity. Maybe there was an uncle or aunt or village elder who took him under their wing. We don’t know. But there was an early encounter, or encounters, with love that held his heart and beckoned it forth.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Jordan is Jesus’ discovery of Holy Mystery. What is your Jordan, or Jordans? It’s important for us to identify and appreciate our discovery of love – boundless and unfolding love. Maybe it was when a friend stood with you without question during your divorce? Maybe it was during a walk on the beach at dusk alone? Maybe in the tears of loss of a partner? Maybe at an open-air concert as a lone note of the oboe lighted upon your breast? Maybe as you stood side-by-side to thwart the construction of an oil pipeline.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">When we discover Holy Mystery, we begin to truly awaken from our slumber. We are beyond an unconscious fleeting encounter. We are standing in the river of life with our heart open. We are vulnerable, soft, receiving with our soul what life is giving in the moment. We are aware of the ordinary being pregnant with extraordinary simply as it is.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The question that now arises is how shall we <em>live</em> with Holy Mystery in the next moment?</span></span></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="color:#000000;">~ Kevin G. Thew Forrester, Ph.D.<br>
<br>
Read online </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ab2305fdff&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">here</span></a><br>
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<span style="color:#000000;"><strong>About the Author</strong><br>
<strong>Kevin G. Thew Forrester,</strong> Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest, a student of the Diamond Approach for over a decade, as well as a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition. He is the founder of the Healing Arts Center of in Marquette, Michigan, and the author of five books, including <em>I Have Called You Friends, Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms,</em> and </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=908bbe66d5&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;"><em>My Heart is a Raging Volcano of Love for You</em></span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> and </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=d67e37dcda&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;"><em>Beyond my Wants, Beyond my Fears: The Soul’s Journey into the Heartland</em></span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. Visit Kevin’s Blog: </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=fec9fb08ed&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">Essential Living: For The Soul’s Journey</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"><u>.</u></span></span></span>
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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;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Question & Answer</span></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:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">Q: By Frank</span></strong><br>
<span style="color:#222222;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><em>What are some essential steps that can be taken to improve America's gun problem?</em></span></span></span></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;"><br>
<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">A: By Rev. Mark Sandlin</span></strong></span></h3>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=04904363dd&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img align="left" height="142" src="https://mcusercontent.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/015733a0-05a5-df7f-c8b4-6a5356e9db2b.png" style="border:0px;width:150px;min-height:142px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;outline:none;text-decoration:none;" width="150"></a><span style="color:#222222;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Dear Frank,</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">If we take seriously our call to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, it is far past time to act.</span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;"> </span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">We must protest in the streets. Over and over again we must demand our elected officials do the things we already know will make a difference. Things like banning assault rifles; requiring background checks, training and licensing, and gun insurance; reducing easy access to dangerous weapons; requiring waiting periods; campaign finance reform; and holding manufactures responsible for irresponsible marketing and sales.</span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;"> </span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">We also need to do more to reduce situations that can end up with folks deciding that a gun is their best option. That includes a reduction of poverty and food insecurity, politicians that work to unite us rather than work to divide us, access to affordable or free healthcare for all people; police who have received deescalation and anti-racism training; supporting healthier ideas of masculinity; and a stronger emphasis on trauma care in our health systems.</span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;"> </span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">For Christians a lot of the things we need to do are things we should already be doing. We must work more actively and lovingly for our neighbors. There are far too many of them dying unnecessarily because of guns and because of our nation's lack of will to do something about it. We must live more honestly into the humanistic and spiritual call to make care of our neighbors a primary mandate in our lives, because far too many hearts have been shattered as a loved one's life is ended with a bullet.</span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;"> </span></font><br>
<font color="#222222" face="georgia, times, times new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">There are certainly many other things that can be done, but this is a pretty good starting point. As you probably picked up on, I believe we all need to take seriously our call to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to act on it, demand change, and to never let up until our neighbors are safe.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#222222;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">~ Rev. Mark Sandlin<br>
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Read and share online <a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=c6516fe168&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a><br>
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<strong>About the Author</strong></span></span></span><br>
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>Rev. Mark Sandlin</strong> is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Mark also serves as the President and Co-executive Director of </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ebbbaacdf4&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">ProgressiveChristianity.org</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. He is a co-founder of </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=0bb3267cf2&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">The Christian Left</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">. His </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=2d2e60d47f&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">blog</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.” Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. His Podcast </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=209f5ce731&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">The Moonshine Jesus Show</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> is on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. Follow Mark on </span><a href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=d6e2cb13d3&e=db34daa597" style="color:#007C89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span style="color:#000000;">Facebook</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> and Twitter @marksandlin.</span></span></span></p>
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<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">We’re so excited to announce that ProgressiveChristianity.org was recently named the <strong>top Progressive Christian blog</strong> on the internet by Feedspot! A group of panelists looked at web traffic, content, social media, and overall impact and decided that this organization was doing the best job on the internet of promoting Progressive Christian values. <br>
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We are currently preparing an updated version of our study guide, finishing the final year of our Joyful Path Curriculum, launching new podcasts, expanding our social media reach, and working on diversifying the voices featured on our site so that we are an even better reflection of Progressive Christian values. <br>
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<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:22px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong>Bishop Spong Revisited </strong></span></span></span><br>
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<h2 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;"><span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">"Think Different–Accept Uncertainty" Part XV:<br>
Was Lazarus Raised from the Dead?</span></span></span></h2>
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<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong<br>
August 2, 2012</span></span></span><br>
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<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><img height="149" src="https://mcusercontent.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/d438a893-9dc0-cd67-7076-050fdb5c2ae4.jpg" style="width:150px;min-height:149px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;float:left;border:0;outline:none;text-decoration:none;" width="150">Before leaving my brief analysis of the miracle stories of the New Testament, I want to look at what is probably the best known miraculous act attributed to Jesus in the entire gospel tradition. That is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It is a narrative told only in the Fourth Gospel (John 11), which means it does not appear in the Christian tradition until near the very end of the first century, between the years 95-100. Because it is in John’s gospel only, we need to be aware of the role it plays in that gospel. From chapters 2-12 there is in John what scholars now refer to as “The Book of Signs.” In this section John records seven signs around which he will tell his story of Jesus. The first one is the account of Jesus changing water into wine at Cana in Galilee and the last one is the story of the raising of Lazarus. By calling these otherwise apparently supernatural acts “signs” John was, I believe, indicating that they should not be viewed as miracle stories, but as narratives that point beyond themselves to something of great meaning and significance. That was John’s way of saying that these “signs” are not to be literalized.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">When we turn to the actual narrative of the Lazarus story itself, there are many other things that look as if they are meant to be warnings that this story is not to be read literally. First, there is the biographical detail that Lazarus is introduced as the brother of Mary and Martha, who live in the village of Bethany. That is a strange detail because Mary and Martha are well known figures in the gospel tradition, but nowhere has it ever been suggested up until this moment that they had a brother named Lazarus.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The second detail in John’s story that causes questions to be raised is that Jesus is notified of Lazarus’ sickness and, we are told, he deliberately refuses to go to him until the report comes of his death. The death of Lazarus was, said Jesus, for the purpose of the “glory of God” that the son of man “might be glorified by means of it.” That is interpretive language, used in an attempt to make sense retrospectively of the meaning of the Jesus experience. It is not the language of a reporter describing a supernatural event that was supposed to have happened in history.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The third thing that is noteworthy in this story is that although no actual person named Lazarus has ever before been mentioned anywhere in the Christian tradition, when he appears here we are told that he was especially close to Jesus. In this narrative an intense emphasis is placed on how much Jesus loved him. When Jesus is first informed of Lazarus’ sickness the words used are: “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” When the crowd observes Jesus weeping with grief, the text quotes the bystanders as saying: “See how he loved him.” Again and again in this narrative we are told that the relationship between Jesus and Lazarus is very, very close. Yet, none of the earlier gospels have ever heard of him.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">To add to this mystery two chapters later this gospel introduces an enigmatic, but crucial figure around whom John will weave the story of the crucifixion and the resurrection. John calls this figure “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and he is known in biblical circles as the “beloved disciple.” In John’s gospel the “beloved disciple” is beside Jesus at the Last Supper. Peter has to go through him to get his question to Jesus. He is the one at the cross with Jesus and the one to whom Jesus’ mother is commended. He is the first person to stare into the empty tomb and to believe that its inability to contain Jesus was a sign of triumph and resurrection. He was the first to recognize Jesus by the Sea of Galilee in John’s epilogue in chapter 21. So both the figure of the “beloved disciple” and the figure named Lazarus raised from the dead, appear in the mind of the author of this gospel to be deeply linked in Jesus’ affections. Both must, therefore, be seen as major, even pivotal figures in John’s attempt to proclaim a new understanding of God in the life of Jesus. This leads us to the conclusion that in all probability neither of these figures was a person of history. A close reading of the Fourth Gospel raises the prospect that this author creates a whole string of literary characters through whom he seeks to tell the Jesus story. Many of them are, like Lazarus and “the beloved disciple,” characters about whom no one has ever heard before John writes. I think of such figures as Nathanial, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman by the well, the Gentile official whose child is healed, the man crippled for 38 years and the man born blind. It is the literal reading of John’s gospel that has led us over the centuries to think of these figures as people of history. They are, I am now convinced, no more of history than Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes or Harry Potter. To understand John’s gospel we must begin to see this ability to create memorable characters as a mark of his literary genius.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">With the non-historical nature of Lazarus now before us we turn to John’s story and read it for the “high drama” it is. These are the details: Jesus arrives in Bethany well after the funeral of Lazarus has been completed. Indeed he has been buried for four days. John informs us that the crowd of mourners is still there. This crowd includes some who are followers of Jesus, some who are his critics and some who are his sworn enemies. This “sign” is going to be performed in public with hostile witnesses present. When Jesus first arrives he is berated by both Martha and Mary for not coming quickly when he received the urgent message. “Lord, if you had been here our brother would not have died,” they say. Jesus is then made by John to engage in a long conversation with Martha about life after death. In that conversation, John injects the last of his “I AM” sayings. “I AM” is the name God revealed to Moses at the burning bush in the book of Exodus. John takes this holy name and places it onto the lips of Jesus over and over again. Only in John’s gospel does Jesus say such things as “I AM the bread of Life,” “I AM the living Water,” “I AM the Good Shepherd.” “I AM the door,” “I AM the vine,” “I AM the Way” and in this episode Jesus is made to say: “I AM the Resurrection.” Even more enigmatically in other places in this gospel Jesus is quoted as having said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” and “when you see the son of man lifted up, you will know I AM.” So whatever else we do with this story we need to read it inside its Johannine context.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The final thing to notice is the heightened miraculous character of this story. Lazarus is not only dead, but he has been buried for four days. Martha warns Jesus that there will be an odor if the grave is opened. Jesus, nonetheless, accompanied by a great crowd goes to the tomb, rolls back the covering stone and calls to the dead man: “Lazarus, come forth.” To the amazement of the crowd, a mummy-like figure appears bound in burial cloths, struggling to get free. Jesus says: “Unbind him and let him go.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">What is the response to this scene? Some believed, said John, but many more conspired to put Jesus to death. Indeed in John’s gospel this is the event that brings on the crucifixion. John in this episode even has Caiaphas the High Priest, speak these words: “it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people.” From the story of the raising of Lazarus onward the death of Jesus is inevitable in the Fourth Gospel.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">If this story is not literal, then what does it mean and from where did John draw the details. Earlier in this series, we noted the parallels between the story of Elisha raising a child from the dead and Jesus raising the child of the synagogue official named Jairus, from the dead. We also noted that the story of Elijah raising from the dead the only son of a widow is reflected in Luke’s account of Jesus raising from the dead the only son of a widow in the village of Nain. In the Hebrew Scriptures, however, there is no parallel to the raising of Lazarus. So no interpretive help flows from that source.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">There is, however, a parable in the synoptic tradition, told only by Luke, in which there is a character named Lazarus. He is a beggar who dies and goes to the “bosom of Abraham,” a Jewish synonym for heaven. His adversary in this parable is a rich man, sometimes called Dives, who also dies and he goes to a place of torment. Once there, Dives asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with water. Abraham responds that one cannot get there from here. Dives then asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his brothers lest they too come to this place of torment. To this Abraham responds, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.” Dives counters this by saying if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent. To this Abraham speaks the key word that unlocks John’s story. “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets neither will they be convinced even if one should rise from the dead.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="margin:10px 0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">John has taken this Lucan parable and has made its meaning come true as an event in history. Lazarus is raised and they are not convinced. Instead this story is the catalyst that leads to the crucifixion. John never intended this to be viewed as history. This is an interpretive story told in the midst of the tension between the followers of Jesus and the synagogue authorities over how Jesus is to be understood. We must learn to read the Bible without imposing our frightened literalism on it. That is not only an important task, but a deeply rewarding one. The Lazarus story is not a miracle; it is a “sign.”</span></span></span></p>
<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ Bishop John Shelby Spong</span></span></span>
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