Tag Archives: cross
Lesson One: Life Is Hard
Reality Initiating Us: Part One Lesson One: Life Is Hard Monday, March 30, 2020 You have to be sick and tired of being sick and tired before recovery can begin. —Twelve Step Wisdom All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. Creation has a pattern of wisdom; and we dare not shield… Continue Reading Lesson One: Life Is Hard
Suffering in Solidarity
The Path of Descent Suffering in Solidarity Sunday, March 22, 2020 I am not alone in my tiredness or sickness or fears, but at one with millions of others from many centuries, and it is all part of life. —Etty Hillesum [1] The “cross,” rightly understood, always reveals various kinds of resurrection. It’s as if God were holding… Continue Reading Suffering in Solidarity
The Suffering of God
Oneness The Suffering of God Sunday, September 22, 2019 I am not alone in my tiredness or sickness or fears, but at one with millions of others from many centuries, and it is all part of life. —Etty Hillesum [1] Just days before I began writing my book about the Universal Christ, I learned that… Continue Reading The Suffering of God
Doing the Victim Thing Right
Jesus’ Death Doing the Victim Thing Right Tuesday, April 16, 2019 The deep-time message of Jesus’ death is presented through a confluence of three healing images from his own Hebrew Scriptures: the scapegoat whom we talked about on Sunday; the Passover lamb which is the innocent victim (Exodus 12); the “Lifted-Up One” or the homeopathic… Continue Reading Doing the Victim Thing Right
Savior of the World
Jesus’ Death Savior of the World Monday, April 15, 2019 Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. —1 Corinthians 15:57 How does Jesus the victim transform us? How does the lamb of God “take away” our sin (John 1:29), to use the common metaphor? How does Jesus “overcome… Continue Reading Savior of the World
The Scapegoat
Jesus’ Death The Scapegoat Sunday, April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday The ingenious Hebrew ritual from which the word “scapegoat” originated is described in Leviticus 16. On the Day of Atonement, a priest laid hands on an “escaping” goat, placing all the sins of the Jewish people from the previous year onto the animal. The goat… Continue Reading The Scapegoat
Dying with Christ
Dying Before You Die Dying with Christ Monday, April 1, 2019 My good friend and Franciscan colleague Sister Ilia Delio writes: God is radically involved with the world, empowering the world toward fullness in love, but God is unable to bring about this fullness without the cooperation of humans. Human and divine cannot co-create unto… Continue Reading Dying with Christ
The Performance Principle
Growing in Christ: Week 1 The Performance Principle Friday, March 22, 2019 Religion in the second half of life is finally not a moral matter; it’s a mystical matter. While most of us begin focused on moral proficiency and perfection, we can’t spend our whole lives this way. Paul calls the first-half-of-life approach “the Law”;… Continue Reading The Performance Principle
Jesus and the Cross: Weekly Summary
Jesus and the Cross Summary: Sunday, February 3-Friday, February 8, 2019 Unfortunately, with the widespread acceptance of the substitutionary atonement theory, salvation became a one-time transactional affair between Jesus and his Father, instead of an ongoing transformational lesson for the human soul and for all of history. (Sunday) Christianity’s vision of God was a radical… Continue Reading Jesus and the Cross: Weekly Summary
The Scapegoat Mechanism
Jesus and the Cross The Scapegoat Mechanism Friday, February 8, 2019 The scapegoating ritual described in Leviticus 16 offers a helpful perspective on Jesus’ death. On the “Day of Atonement” the high priest, Aaron, was instructed to symbolically lay all the sins of the people on one unfortunate goat, and the people would then beat… Continue Reading The Scapegoat Mechanism
