Friends,
What follows below is a column I have written as a guest columnist for The Piedmont Post. The column comes out next week, so I chose an Easter theme.
God’s Peace,
Ben
An Easter Evolution
Back when I was younger and a bit more zealous, the Christian celebration of Easter was something I used to separate myself from those I deemed insufficiently credulous. I was convinced that belief in an historic, medically verifiable resurrection of Jesus was necessary for those who self-identify as Christian and probably essential for anyone daring to hope for an eternal rest in the company of angels.
In those days I had such confidence in my belief in resurrection that I was convinced that I could, with a time machine and a video camera, prove the historicity of the Easter Story by capturing footage that would confirm at least one of the four versions of the miracle that are recorded in the Gospels. The idea that on a Sunday Jesus walked alive out of a grave in which his lifeless body had rested since Friday, was settled for me. My faith was solid and my beliefs were firm.
But with the passage of time things have changed. If I have learned anything over the course of 25 years of pastoral ministry it is this: it is not easy to be both certain and honest; it’s even harder to be kind without embracing a certain measure of heresy.
I still affirm with hopeful joy the ancient proclamation of faith: “Christ is risen indeed!”; but when it comes to the actual resurrection of Jesus, my only real confidence is that I rather doubt such a miracle could be captured on a camcorder, even if you had a time machine.
I’ve come to learn that the importance of Jesus’ resurrection has little to do with historical fact. Rather, what makes Jesus’ resurrection powerful is the promise that, in the end, joy abides even in the presence of tragedy, hope remains possible even in moments of despair, faith endures despite soul-crunching doubt, beauty arises, dancing, from the ashes of ugliness, and life can survive—does survive—even when death has done its worst.
This understanding of resurrection and the joy of Easter can be shared by traditional Christians, and by those whose spiritual paths lie outside the Christian tradition; by those who believe in an empty tomb and by those who cannot accept the possibility of a reanimated corpse, even when God is involved.
What I know now is that I’d rather surround myself with a community of hope that embraces the promise of life in a variety of ways than to keep company with those whose main concern is to avoid heresy, heterodoxy, and doubt.
So I bid you a joyful Easter whatever blend of faith and doubt fills your soul. Wherever your spiritual path lies, whichever religious tradition you do or do not call a spiritual home, if you would find your life touched by the hope of renewal and the promise of new life, then you are my spiritual kin, regardless of what you do or do not believe.