For a deeper dive – over 500 posts on life, mind, body & spirit
If thoughtful conversations on faith and God interest you, check out Krista Tippett’s show –
Krista Tippett on Being: meaning, religion, ethics and ideas.
Her serious journalism, in-depth interviews and thoughtful shows are available as Podcasts on the website link above. You can watch them at your convenience.
You may also like Question the Culture or The Story of the Wolf.
Interested in going someplace fun and creative this weekend? Consider the Minneapolis Institute of Arts “Art in Bloom” Exhibit beginning Friday, April 28 – Sunday, May 1. Usually art imitates life – but here life imitates art! Although the floral arrangements are certainly art too.
You will be caught up in a feeling of spring for the time you are there. The arrangements are so clever, colorful and inspirational. Watch a flicker slide show of some of the amazing displays here. Or take a look at pictures from last year below.
You may also like Winter Foliage Inspiration and Surprised by the Spirit.
As DH wrote in an email to me, “Wrap your brains around THIS ONE from Technology Review.”
Just 3.9 billion years left before time ends? Interesting to think about – and supports the Doctrine of Creation belief that time had a beginning and has a telos, meaning a purpose, goal or endpoint. Time doesn’t go on endlessly.
God or reality has a purpose and a vision in mind – even if it’s not a specific plan because we have free will. Actually all of creation has some degree of free will. This is because God takes a risk in creating and allows creation the freedom to be and to choose. We can observe this because we live in an evolutionary universe.
As theologian and scientist John Haught notes, a self-emptying, self-giving, but infinite God requires that any finite creation of God’s must, therefore, be an evolving one.
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The most amazing invitation you can imagine has been offered to each of us.
Transformative healing or wholeness – salvation. This is God’s promise. This is the religious end of Christianity. Its goal or promise is salvation.
What does “salvation” mean? It comes from the same root word as the Latin word salve meaning “to heal” or “to make whole.” Think about a salve you might put on your skin to heal it.
Is salvation heaven? If “heaven” is understood as a place far away, up in the clouds or in another universe elsewhere – then no, salvation is NOT heaven. In the gospels, Jesus’ resurrection breaks into this world. His disciples do not get whisked off to some other universe to encounter him. It is this world that God promises to heal and make right.
Read C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce if you think heaven is another place where all our materialistic desires are met. The characters in this story begin their journey in “Grey Town” where they can have anything and everything they desire – and it is most assuredly NOT heaven.
The story of salvation in Judeo-Christian history recounted in the bible is a story of freedom, liberation and healing, as in the story of Exodus, the stories of the exile and return from Babylon and the stories of healing and wholeness Jesus brings.
Likewise the meaning of “resurrection” in the Old Testament refers to the understanding that God will “set things right” in the world. Resurrect meaning “to stand up” to “stand with” and “to stand for.” In resurrection we will be able to stand up, in right relationship with God, for each other and with the world.
Salvation and resurrection. Both speak of a process that begins now, in this lifetime and continues beyond our death. It requires our acceptance or consent. God/reality will not coerce us.
Salvation and resurrection. Healing and wholeness. Surrender to the process is all that is required.
Your invitation beckons. Will you accept?
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Beginning with Lent, our journey comes to a close.
The great liturgy, Triduum, began on Thursday.
We gathered.
Our feet were washed. We washed the feet of others.
We shared bread and wine.
Friday we prayed.
Saturday we waited.
At sundown tonight, Easter arrives. The liturgy continues.
We are all gathered.
The church is dark.
The wreath is placed in the fireplace. The bonfire is lit. In the darkness we wait and watch.
The Easter candle is lit.
In the darkness, the procession slowly enters the church. The bells jingle. The banners shimmer.
The bonfire glows outside the window.
The light is passed to everyone gathered.
Music starts. Readings begin.
Fragrant incense annoints us all.
And we remember.
Whatever tomb we think we are in, God can do things for us that we cannot imagine for ourselves.
We can walk out of the tomb.
Death is not the end.
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