Today is Easter. It is the greatest day in the Christian calendar. On this day I have had a variety of experiences in and around church that lead to reflection on Easter and its observation. So, in no special order-
We attend a wonderful church with one of the finest ministers I have ever known. That says something, as I have known many. I lead a pair of discussion groups for the church. My unconventional values make it awkward for me to form a class on Sundays, but there has been gratifying interest in Christian history and deeper looks at various texts. Our minister is a well educated and broadly read man, and talking with him and listening to his sermons is always a joy (more in a minute).
Easter involves a traffic jam around the church. In the frantic rush to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus people engage in all manner of behavior that I wish could be put up on a screen in church. Cutting people off in traffic. Blocking lanes. Pulling on children. All of this while dressed in 'Easter finery', lovely clothing meant to celebrate Spring and resurrection. All while behaving horribly.
Celebrating Easter apparently requires lots of instruments and singers. The regular crew just won't do. And songs must be loud, with cymbals and strings and tympani and horns. Having sung in churches since I was 15 it is all quite predictable to the point of cliché.
Some Christian groups have a habit of opening their arms while singing and/or raising one arm up in the air. I tried to figure out what the code word was to prompt this behavior, but as the practitioners of it do not do it simultaneously or even to the same words I couldn't figure out the code. Is the hand a special 'God receiver'? Is this the accepted way to show particular inspiration, as opposed to shouting 'Amen' or dancing in the aisles? Or speaking in strange languages, or handling snakes? Maybe it's a hello, like hiii God, hiii God. Whatever it is meant to convey it is distracting, and also a cliché. You look like a squid searching for food...
Why can't God appear as a still small voice? Why so much noise and gesticulation?
Our minister gave a great sermon, which in essence said 'fine, God is resurrected and alive. NOW what do you DO?' Orthopraxis versus orthodoxy. Given that I am not remotely orthodox in my thinking, I love his sermons, which leave room for orthodoxy or non-orthodoxy while asking the critical question- how do you express your beliefs? It has to involve something more than cymbals and squid tentacles.
Theologically Christianity, and religion in general, has always led to mathematical analogies. This drives our minister nuts, as mathematics is not his favorite thing but appeals to me because of the spiritual quality to calculus. Prior to calculus everything is just figures. Afterwards it is all philosophy.
Easter is a co-optation of May Day celebrations, a smart move on the part of the church, just as Christmas is a co-optation of mid-winter feasts. May Day was/is a celebration of fertility, of the return of greenery, of the sprouting of crops. Rituals are overtly sexual and tied to fertility. The people dancing around May poles were not originally children but young women, often although not always virgins. The dance was a prelude to what bulls and sheep do in the Spring- rutting. And the May pole is a rather obvious symbol. Other darker rituals have included human sacrifice to allow blood to fertilize the ground.
These rituals are obvious and earthy. They are the arithmetic of mathematics. There is a direct linkage of behavior to outcomes. Christianity is the algebra of religion. In algebra a representational variable substitutes for constants, allowing a more general understanding of mathematical concepts. Substitutional atonement is the same idea, where A man stands in for God on earth and his death for human sin before God.
Like those well versed in algebra, some Christians are quite insistent on the Rules. In algebra it is impossible to divide by zero. This is axiomatic. Any result that leads to division by zero is Wrong. Christian belief requires that Jesus be The Son of God, that his death is a substitution for our sin.
What if Jesus points the way beyond rules? He surely did for Judaism. While explicitly saying no part of the Law would be overturned he frequently ignored it to help and heal the dirty and outcast. Surely the message from Jesus is one of kindness, of compassion, and of an immediate and personal access to God's Rule, which transcends all earthly rules.
This message is like calculus. It IS possible to divide by zero. There is more than mere variable substitution. It is possible to calculate the slope of a curve, not just a line. The moment of understanding is transformational, a change in how the world and numbers are seen. They cease to be simple calculational tools and become a way of expressing the nature of the Universe. Earthly constraints are irrelevant.
That's what Christianity is for me. Jesus points the way to God. I don't know or care if he was God. The concept of resurrection, of Easter, points the way to union with God, a union that transcends death. The (to me) myth of literal bodily resurrection is irrelevant compared to the majesty of the message that God is here, now, and everywhere, always. And that death is only the gateway to life.
Dividing by zero is possible, and it leads to understanding and worlds previously unknown.
Happy Easter.
Ted
We attend a wonderful church with one of the finest ministers I have ever known. That says something, as I have known many. I lead a pair of discussion groups for the church. My unconventional values make it awkward for me to form a class on Sundays, but there has been gratifying interest in Christian history and deeper looks at various texts. Our minister is a well educated and broadly read man, and talking with him and listening to his sermons is always a joy (more in a minute).
Easter involves a traffic jam around the church. In the frantic rush to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus people engage in all manner of behavior that I wish could be put up on a screen in church. Cutting people off in traffic. Blocking lanes. Pulling on children. All of this while dressed in 'Easter finery', lovely clothing meant to celebrate Spring and resurrection. All while behaving horribly.
Celebrating Easter apparently requires lots of instruments and singers. The regular crew just won't do. And songs must be loud, with cymbals and strings and tympani and horns. Having sung in churches since I was 15 it is all quite predictable to the point of cliché.
Some Christian groups have a habit of opening their arms while singing and/or raising one arm up in the air. I tried to figure out what the code word was to prompt this behavior, but as the practitioners of it do not do it simultaneously or even to the same words I couldn't figure out the code. Is the hand a special 'God receiver'? Is this the accepted way to show particular inspiration, as opposed to shouting 'Amen' or dancing in the aisles? Or speaking in strange languages, or handling snakes? Maybe it's a hello, like hiii God, hiii God. Whatever it is meant to convey it is distracting, and also a cliché. You look like a squid searching for food...
Why can't God appear as a still small voice? Why so much noise and gesticulation?
Our minister gave a great sermon, which in essence said 'fine, God is resurrected and alive. NOW what do you DO?' Orthopraxis versus orthodoxy. Given that I am not remotely orthodox in my thinking, I love his sermons, which leave room for orthodoxy or non-orthodoxy while asking the critical question- how do you express your beliefs? It has to involve something more than cymbals and squid tentacles.
Theologically Christianity, and religion in general, has always led to mathematical analogies. This drives our minister nuts, as mathematics is not his favorite thing but appeals to me because of the spiritual quality to calculus. Prior to calculus everything is just figures. Afterwards it is all philosophy.
Easter is a co-optation of May Day celebrations, a smart move on the part of the church, just as Christmas is a co-optation of mid-winter feasts. May Day was/is a celebration of fertility, of the return of greenery, of the sprouting of crops. Rituals are overtly sexual and tied to fertility. The people dancing around May poles were not originally children but young women, often although not always virgins. The dance was a prelude to what bulls and sheep do in the Spring- rutting. And the May pole is a rather obvious symbol. Other darker rituals have included human sacrifice to allow blood to fertilize the ground.
These rituals are obvious and earthy. They are the arithmetic of mathematics. There is a direct linkage of behavior to outcomes. Christianity is the algebra of religion. In algebra a representational variable substitutes for constants, allowing a more general understanding of mathematical concepts. Substitutional atonement is the same idea, where A man stands in for God on earth and his death for human sin before God.
Like those well versed in algebra, some Christians are quite insistent on the Rules. In algebra it is impossible to divide by zero. This is axiomatic. Any result that leads to division by zero is Wrong. Christian belief requires that Jesus be The Son of God, that his death is a substitution for our sin.
What if Jesus points the way beyond rules? He surely did for Judaism. While explicitly saying no part of the Law would be overturned he frequently ignored it to help and heal the dirty and outcast. Surely the message from Jesus is one of kindness, of compassion, and of an immediate and personal access to God's Rule, which transcends all earthly rules.
This message is like calculus. It IS possible to divide by zero. There is more than mere variable substitution. It is possible to calculate the slope of a curve, not just a line. The moment of understanding is transformational, a change in how the world and numbers are seen. They cease to be simple calculational tools and become a way of expressing the nature of the Universe. Earthly constraints are irrelevant.
That's what Christianity is for me. Jesus points the way to God. I don't know or care if he was God. The concept of resurrection, of Easter, points the way to union with God, a union that transcends death. The (to me) myth of literal bodily resurrection is irrelevant compared to the majesty of the message that God is here, now, and everywhere, always. And that death is only the gateway to life.
Dividing by zero is possible, and it leads to understanding and worlds previously unknown.
Happy Easter.
Ted
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