Carl

For the first time in my life, I decided it was time to find out firsthand what the mega-church experience was all about. That’s mega, not maga. I half expected that the two might have merged into one, but was pleasantly surprised that politics was not mentioned at all.

The fact is that civil-minded folk outnumber the forces on the other side. There are just more of us than there are of them. The problem is that we have not recognized the current existential threat. We slide along the path we are on, pretending as though next year will be the same as this year. It will not.

The message was simple. Love God. Love your neighbor. Join hands in a fellowship of peace and justice. It was an invitation to fulfillment, accepted by many.

Patriarchy probably started about 12,000 years ago. If you google the word, there’s a good chance that you will be more confused than before you started.

If one searches the origin and history of Valentine’s Day, one finds clouds and legends mixed with a bit of history.

Lent is not about giving up chocolate. It’s about uncovering the blindness in our perception and being open to what others have to share with us.

We recently celebrated the life, faith and non-violence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The moment triggers within us a host of emotions-thankfulness for heroes such as he, distress about the state of our country, anxiety about the future, and fear for the present.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is reported to have said that “the universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” No doubt true, but how about the inverse: are we under any obligation to make sense out of the universe?

The second in the series that looks at the life of Jesus.

This is the first in a series that looks at the life of Jesus and contrasts the story that has come down through the ages with what probably really happened.

How about the “me” that I think I am? Is that a constant? Not really. The person that I thought I was a decade or two ago, is not totally the person I think I am today.

The four searchers now realized that there were two Jesus stories, one pervasive across the Christian churches, the other hidden in the background.

How did the wealthy accrue the power to change the thinking of the church about who Jesus was and what he did? That, our four researchers discovered, is -up to now- a mystery hidden in history.

Unlike many would-be messiahs who took up arms to evict the Romans, only to be crucified for their efforts, Jesus proposed and lived a path of peace and love.

I believe neither that Hades exists nor that anyone would be sent there even if it did. But as a critique of the manner in which wealth neglects the poor, this is pretty powerful.

Following his life in Nazareth that possibly included day trips to Sepphoris looking for work, the next training ground for Jesus was a brief time with this same John the Baptist in the wilderness, hearing again that injustice is not the way of the Lord.

So who is right? Did Jesus live and move in a society that was doing alright economically, or one mired in poverty? Or does the question not really matter?

Money, wealth, financial power, economic power, call it what you will, extreme wealth disparity destroys societies from within, eating away at the bond between people and the fabric of society.

I read once that if everyone started out with the same amount of good land and the same amount of money or what money could buy, despite the initial equality, some would become rich, and others would become poor. Why would this happen?

Jesus did die on a cross, but not to save us from our sins. He did rise from the dead, but not by walking out of an empty tomb. He did not perform miracles, but he did heal peoples’ psychological wounds inflicted by massive oppression. His story got twisted.

Palm Sunday is a festival celebrated by Christians around the world. Jesus went to Jerusalem; that much is certain. The details are less clear.

Where is all this going? What can we ultimately hope for, for both the universe as a whole and our own individual life as part of that same whole?

As the years moved along, this answer seemed less and less adequate in the face of undeserved suffering in the world, the epitome of which is the baby born into the world, experiences extreme pain, and dies after one day.

Christmas presents us with an intersection of religious and secular stories that come from and come with a mixed bag of fact and fiction