We believe in his resurrection! Is this true? Do we believe all that is involved in this? He is the living one. He is the victor over sin and death. He is not one who ascended into heaven in order to disappear from world history as if he had never been in it. He...
00651 – We Experience Resurrection Every Day
Resurrection is not a deferred consolation—”the opium of the next world.” It is the power which enables this life to be reborn. The hope is directed, not towards a different world but towards the redemption of this one. In the Spirit, resurrection is not merely...
00650 – Leaving the Unbearable Behind
Of course there were rumors about the tomb’s being empty. The women had come back just after sunrise full of wild stories. But rumors are only rumors, women are always telling wild stories, and for at least two of the people who had followed him, there was nothing...
00649 – Mary Told to Spread the News of Resurrection
Mary is exhorted to spread the news of the resurrection and ascension and of the new life with God and one another that is now available to all. Those who follow Jesus have become members of the family of God and Jesus. from “Gospel of John” from Women’s Bible...
00648 – Competition: Eternal Life, not Morality
It wasn’t the morality of the Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism, but the belief that Jesus had been raised from the dead. In an age when Roman senators vied to see who could get the most blood of a steer on their togas—thinking...
00647 – Resurrection: Mary Magdalene, the First to Believe
Sometimes the course of one’s entire life is determined by a solitary incident—some kind of defining moment that changes everything. Mary’s decision to anoint Jesus’ body for burial on the third day after his death was just such a moment. When she arrived, she found...
00646 – The Resurrection Sets Jesus Apart from Other Leaders
Apart from the resurrection, Jesus has no more claim upon us than Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Anwar Sadat: He was simply one among many good leaders who managed to meet an unjust death. from Calendar: Christ’s Time for the...
00638 – Being Invited to Journey from Death to New Life
So there is a powerful personal meaning to Good Friday and Easter. The followers of Jesus are invited into the journey that leads through death to new life. Personal transformation is utterly important. Without it, we remain within the world of our socialization, a...
00634 – We Prefer the Resurrection to the Cross
We prefer the resurrection to the cross… take a pill — try to get over hurt and anguish and injustice — exploitation — try to avoid involvement with other people and their difficulties — protect yourselves — think not of the groaning creation and sustenance for...
00632 – Feeble Gospel vs. Powerful Gospel
The feeble gospel goes back to Jesus as our model, our example, and is much concerned with moral injunctions. It sees his teaching as a fine set of ideals at which to aim. It may not do much harm but it has no power to change your life: it is a faith built in sand...