Being an Easter People
On Easter Sunday, Gretta speaks in the midst of overturned chalices and candlesticks and other remainders from the Good Friday service. She relates how it used to be for her: how she felt compelled to clean things up before the Easter morning service. But this morning she leaves things messy as a reminder that it isn’t so easy to shrug off the Good Friday story. We are no longer a community that just believes; we are a community that seeks to be. She then relates ways in which the Good Friday experience touches our lives – personally, as dwellers in a large city, as citizens of a country, as co-inhabitants of a planet. These experiences invite us to make things better, for example, to work at relationships at every level of our existence. As she speaks about putting things right in our lives, she picks things up from the floor and sets them back where they belong while children decorate the chancel with flowers.
Easter Passion
This morning’s reading comes from Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of countless vehicles for that primal struggle between the forces of good and evil. Interesting that for most of human history we have placed this struggle exclusively within the context of the supernatural. This is where Buffy collides with the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem. This week’s lectionary reading is Matthew’s account of the entry into Jerusalem, an account intended to connect Matthew’s readers to their Jewish tradition. It also falls squarely within the tradition of the supernatural struggle. The story helps transform Jesus into a supernatural force that would allow good to triumph once and for all. But maybe the truly “supernatural” force acting in our lives is passion. Gretta Vosper explores how human passion can be a transforming experience in our life.
John’s Jesus
This week rounds out our discussion of Jesus as presented by the New Testament. Moreso than Paul or the authors of the Synoptic Gospels, John tries to make certain we know that Jesus is of divine origins. His treatment of Jesus reflects a radically different world view. We see that our received portrait of Jesus represents a synthesis of multiple authors with their different world views.
The Synoptic Jesus
Gretta Vosper joins with Janice Meighan, a graduate student of religious studies, in a dialogue about the stories of Jesus that have been transmitted to us through the Synoptic Gospesl (Mark, Matthew & Luke). It becomes apparent that these sources provide us with a complex and often contradictory portrait of Jesus. It also becomes apparent that the liberal Christian tradition has a tendency to pick and choose, avoiding the more problematic images of Jesus – the angry Jesus, the violent Jesus, the Jesus who was anti-family. The talk is rounded out with quotations from other “inspirational” voices. How do we decide if these quotations have meaning in our lives? Especially when the people who uttered them may have lived problematic lives.