Resurrection - Cosmic Hope

"Christ crucified is all of the hidden, private, tragic pain of history made public and given over to God.
Christ resurrected is all of that private, un-grieved, un-noted suffering received, loved and transformed by an All-Caring God. How else could we have any kind of cosmic hope? How else would we not die of sadness for what humanity has done to itself and to one another?

Jesus is the blueprint, the plan, the pattern revealed in one body and moment in history to reveal the meaning of all history and each of our lives.

The cross is the banner of what we do to one another and to God.

The resurrection is the banner of what God does to us in return."  

Richard Rohr

Give joy to one person...

Reading this morning's newsletter from the Charter for Compassion (begun after Karen Armstrong's TED talk on Compassion) I saw this quote from their Facebook page which is worth passing on - and acting on!

Last month's most popular quote on the Charter Facebook page?

“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But I try to work one day at a time. If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. That’s enough. When you see you can do that, you continue, and you give two little joys, and you remove two little sufferings, then three, and then four. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now.”
~Sister Chân Không (born 1938), Vietnamese pioneer of socially engaged Buddhism

Did you know?

Thanks to Paul and the Prodigal Kiwi blog here's a 4 minute You Tube link that is really "mind blowing". I don't have an answer for the question at the end: "What does it all mean?"

More from Rollins...

As a Postscript to yesterday's post I include here a link given in the back of the book Insurrection to a video interview between Rob Bell and Peter Rollins. It is an hour long - and well worth making the time to watch! Rollins is an excellent - and hilarious - speaker. For me this interview clarified some of the points I was wondering about after reading the book. So even if I don't get to have a Rohr and Rollins  interview,  Bell and Rollins is an excellent combination - even if Rob Bell doesn't get many words in!

Insurrection and The Immortal Diamond!

I've just read two books which, while very different, are essentially making the same point - at least some of the time! That converging point is that living in light of the Resurrection is not about debating an historical event but participating as co-creators of resurrection in every area of life now.

Pete Rollins does this in a deliberately "incendiary" way. Listen to his own short introduction to his book Insurrection: to believe is human; to doubt, divine.

I found this book very challenging - and thought provoking. I'm still mulling over whether I'd go as far as he did on some points but I plan to read more of his writing.


Richard Rohr's book Immortal Diamond: the search for our true self  is written for a different purpose but returns many times to the theme that resurrection life (life lived from the "true self") is a life of participation. "Some of the most exciting and fruitful theology today is being described as the turn towards participation. ...It constantly recognizes that we are part of something more than we are observing something. The turn towards participation now sees that most of religious and church history has been largely preoccupied with religious ideas, about which you could be wrong or right. When it is all about ideas, you did not have to be part of 'it'; you just needed to talk correctly about 'it'. You never had to dive in and illustrate that spiritual proof is only in the pudding. You never had to go to Russia; you just needed a correct map of Russia and the willingness to say, "My map is better than your map," or more commonly, "Mine is the only true map," without offering any corroborating evidence that your map has in fact gotten you there." p108f (italics in original)

Rohr takes the reader more gently on a journey from familiar territory to challenging places that in many ways are similar to where Rollins arrives. With Rohr's book it may feel more like being coaxed out of an old confining chrysalis than Rollins' radical burning of the bridges you've just walked over! I'd love to hear an interview between Rohr and Rollins. I think they would agree on a great deal - but I'm not sure it would be everything.

Both books are well worth reading - but there's a "right time" for everything!