Do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus?
Two stories from work -
I raise money for one of the most well known charities in Georgia. That’s good news for me - people appreciate us and are quite willing to contribute even in the hard times that we are all experiencing. At the same time, as I go out to some appointment or dinner or other occasion, I am always struck by the fact that even though people know our organization, often, they have little clue as to what we actually do in detail.
My second point is less a tale, instead it is a word of advice. As I go out to raise money, my supervisor always sends me out saying, “John, Keep your story straight!” She says it every time.
I don’t know whether you had the opportunity to watch the recent Ted Kennedy “Service of Resurrection.” I was deeply affected and grateful that the Kennedy family understood that while this was a personal tragedy for them, it was an important event for our nation as well. The music was particularly moving for me. Some of the gestures like being led in intercessory prayer by the Kennedy family grandchildren was a strong reminder of the commitments made by Senator Kennedy over the years and the remaining challenges that he had left behind for others to tackle.
I have two reflections.
The first is a bit of a tangent. Some of us are studying John Shelby Spong’s latest book on eternal life. The book is as much a spiritual autobiography as it is a theological treatise. In the opening chapter, he reflects on his experience having led more than a thousand funerals. He notes that more and more often these days, pastors leading these liturgical events must care for uniquely diverse congregations.
I have been struck, that as we increasingly notice the pluralism in our world, that for many of us, the intra-religious dialogue is more difficult that the inter-religious dialogue. In my previous post, I noted how that praxis (experience) is forcing a hard rethinking of our theological assumptions.
Reflecting on that fact, as the Ted Kennedy liturgy moved to the eucharist, suddenly the question of inclusion emerged. Now don’t misunderstand my point, I am not on some sort of anti-Catholic rant, I simply found myself wondering about the exclusion of probably more than half of the congregation. I could not help but notice that as the Obama family approached the table, the camera turned aside. I don’t know whether they took communion, or simply asked for a blessing. The media may have learned their lesson for as I understand at the recent Tim Russert funeral, there was some controversy at the fact that many non-Catholics received the elements.
About a year ago, I attended the “memorial service” for a beloved member of our local congregation who served for many years as a state representative here in Georgia. There was a large crowd in attendance for she had touched so many lives. I am just guessing, but I would think that at least a third of those attending were of the Jewish faith. As I partook of the service, I became increasingly uncomfortable, especially as one pastor continued to unconsciously (at least I hope he was unaware) speak about how the scriptures that we as Christians have appropriated from the Jewish people were all about Jesus. Many of my Jewish friends, who in one way might be said to originally own these texts, would beg to differ.
But again, as Spong notes as this religious diversity emerges, maybe most often in our funeral services, it forces at least some re-examination of unconsciously held assumptions.
Now, let me move back to the subject at hand. Did you also notice that as the Kennedy service progressed, there was a major shift in the central narrative. On the one hand, there was talk of Ted being able to be together with his brothers, his parents, his sisters in Heaven. Then, on the other hand, although the word was not used, there was talk of him being not is heaven but in Sheol and there were fervent wishes that he might “rest in peace.”
So does it matter whether we are keeping our story straight? Tom Wright is pretty direct when he suggests that this mix of religious metaphors is problematic.
The resurrection remains controversial today, even among Christians. This is partly because, in my experience at both the scholarly level and the popular level, many Christians today use the word “resurrection” very loosely, to mean something that it did not mean in the first century. It is often used today simply as a somewhat exalted way of talking about “going to heaven when you die.”
Wright continues, Many books about the resurrection end up being all about the glorious future that awaits immediately beyond the grave, rather than the ultimate future and resurrection itself.
Speakihg of much contemporary preaching, he writes, I have observed the many Easter sermons that go at once from the fact of Jesus’ resurrurection to the fact of Christian hope, seen not in terms of bodily resurrection but in terms of a glorious life after death in some disembodied heaven.
Speaking of fhis experience in many contemporary funerals, Wright suggests in a recent funeral that he attended, at point after point, all these confusions were on display; if someone was there who had not known before what classical Christianity believed about the ultimate promised future, the liturgy would have left them deeply confused.
Now Wright does not share some sort of poll that might confirm his intuitions. But, even in our own experience, we know where he is coming from. “She is in a better place now.” “Her soul is with Jesus.” “He will be waiting there for us.”
Does it matter that we probably don’t have our story straight? When we wish each other Happy Easter, is it important that many Christians do not know the details behind the greeting? We will come back to these questions later.
In the next three posts, I will try to lay some foundations for the key elements of the major contexts around the question of resurrection – resurrection in the pagan world, the Jewish tradition, and then as it evolved as the Christian church emerged. You might want to take some time and read the article I linked to in my last post by James Tabor, What the Bible Says About Death, the Afterlife and the Future.
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Previous Posts in the Series:
Taking a Second Look at Resurrection – Credentials
Taking a Second Look at Resurrection – Resources
Taking a Second Look at Resurrection – Questions
All material posted in this series is copyrighted (c) and at this time may not be reproduced.
