Can't edit. My apologies Resurrection spelt wrong.

Sounds like a dead end issue

It is about new life - both in this life, and as a believer of an afterlife, in the next one. 

Each day, each moment of each day, I have the opportunity to remember and experience newness and new life in my relationship and understanding of God and with others.  New because I have a chance to start over.  Someone on Wondercafe has referred to communion as the "Table of New Beginnings".  New life, new hope, new beginnings - where I have failed or missed the mark, erred, or hurt (myself or others) I can confess and begin anew.

And as I go through the Easter season, looking at this part of the life of Jesus, I experience again in a new way new life.

The resurection of Jesus represents the return of life to the land to me, like Persephone who is bound by agreement to spend every winter in the underworld and is each spring released to the surface.

Hi crazyheart:

The first day of spring is my most important Holy Day because it was on the eve of this day in 1984 that I experienced an all-night vision of at-one-ment with everything and everyone, including God.

This is what resurrection means to me.

I celebrate this day every year by starting my greenhouse and going for a long contemplative walk.

Now I'll go and transfer my seedling flats, which have already sprouted and are beginning to grow, from the living room to the greenhouse and seed my greenhouse bed. After a festive lunch of homegrown corn and beans from the freezer, I'll go for a long walk.

Talk to you later,

Arminius

Ask me again on Wednesday. On Tuesday I am going to the funeral of an old friend who was just my age (44). After going through this, my thoughts on the matter may need some revisiting.

Mendalla

I am sorry for your loss Mandella.

Happy Equinox Arminius. : )

I would have said that too if I could have spelled it right. LOL

Thanks, Elanorgold.

Just came back from my contemplative walk. No special insights, just spring bursting out all over and profound feelings of joy and at-one-ment.

SPRING EQUINOX 1984

Nowhere to go,

No one to ask,

Nothing to go by.

Only cherryblossom petals dancing in the spring breeze,

And miracle upon miracle unfolding on Earth.

That's lovely Arminius.

Hi crazyheart,

In a nutshell.  Death is not the last word and life has the power to trump it.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Death is an illusion while we are caught up in the cycle of birth and death and birth and death.

Eventually we will go beyond this "wheel of necessity" to where love and service are our only masters. This, to me, is the resurrection.

To me it means being born again, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of Heaven.

It means Jesus was really dead, totally unconcious, and brought back to life. Which also reminds me that someday that death will be totally abolished and swalllowed up in victory for all of humanity! All the glory is His!

Peace & Love

gdriggs

www.bible-truths.com

To me it is affrimation of all that I believe.  Life.  Abundant life.  Here and now.  The Spirit, the Holy, God, with us - here and now - reborn every Christmas, rising again every Easter, coming to us again at Penecost.  Over and over - light coming into the world.  Joy!  Love!   The answer that Life is what matters - not evil, not death - Life in all its abundance. 

To me... it's about the necessity of letting go before new life can begin...

That's nice Gaiagrrl.

Makes sense to me Giaia girl.  Any idea why Christianity keeps putting 'believe in Jesus' into it?

 It is the end of the power of death - now, while I must still face it, I need not fear it. The resurrection of Jesus is the assurance that death does not conquer life.

Could you elaborate on that for me?  Of course - the love we have for others is still a part of us after the loved person dies.  Is that what you mean?

I have to go along with John on this one.

The next question is:  "Was the resurrection a physical one or a spiritual one.  Paul seems to convey the idea that it was a spiritual one when he says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom?"

Shalom

Mate

Was Jesus actually raised from the dead though?  Didn't he just rise again "in our hearts"?  If that is the case than it really does not mean anything.

SD

It would seem that we do not know what happened at or during the Easter event.  Whatever it was it was so powerful and profound to change a band of cowering men into followers willing to die for their master.  It has also changed the course of history over the last 2000 years.  It has also changed the lives of millions very positively, for the most part, over the last two millenia.

Personally I have no problem with the resurrection as a spiritual event and in that I stand with St. Paul.

Shalom

Mate

I believe it was a physical resurrection where the body of Christ became as perfect as any piece of physical matter could ever be. A mirrored reflection of the heavens above. The spirit and the form became as One.

For me, Jesus' resurrection is God the Son, raising from the dead to defeat death, all for the glory of God the Father. Aaaand yep, I believe that the resurrection was a literal event.

Amen, and this event fueled the Apostles so deeply that they gave there life for it.

Yes the apostles gave their lives for it.  It is too bad that the right has failed to seek out the church of the apostles instead of their own creation.

Shalom

Mate

CH,

Maybe you'd enjoy playing these games then.  In particular, "The You Testament".  See where'd you go and be as an Apostle.  I <3 this kind of stuff (especially when it avoids the trendy/easy "donkey laugh" kind of ironic satire that seems to be so prevalent in the online world).

I also give this out so that others, here, can try out and try out the Easter Experience.

Just a Self-writing poem,

InannaWhimsey

Inanna

I think by the most part he is playing . . . by himself.

Shalom

Mate

Something I've always wondered is what did he cry out when he was playing by himself?

Just a Self-writing poem,

InannaWhimsey

Inanna, I'm sorry if you've already answered this question, and I'm also sorry to CrazyHeart since this has nothing what-so-ever to do with the subject of this post, but what is up with the image you are portraying??? I don't even want to begin to describe what I see it as.

Do you play inanna?

Here is some more tasty info on your OP, m'dear.

Easter

A Redacted Series of Documents

In answer to your question:  I have found it too easy to be afraid in this life.  I see so much that isn't done, just because of simple, plain fear.  It is a series of steps to get beyond that, being limited by that.  When I see all around, the invitations to engage with, to participate in, to play.  Even in the midst of dying, "Forgive them, they do not know what they do..." to laugh with the (seemingly hidden) rhythm and joyous shout that is existence.

Or something like that.

Just a Self-writing poem,

InannaWhimsey

Why is it Mate, that almost every time you post, you have to take a shot at "the right" or the evangelicals or conservatives? Can't you just say what you want to say without the extra bits? One could easily level the exact same charges against "the left".

because he bases it on a bad experance with one church.

Hi Mate,

I'm going with C) both A) and B).

I do not think that the either/or answers of Physical vs Spiritual captures the reality of what Christianity is all about.

For starters the distinction between physical and spiritual is way to Gnostic and rather opposed to what I understand Shalom to mean.

So rather than either physical or spiritual I'm going with both physical and spiritual.

First the physical.  Jesus invites the apostles (not just Thomas) to put their fingers in the nail marks on his hands and to put their hands into the wound the soldier's spear made in his side.  Thomas gets a raw deal with that story.  He is the first to ask for such a boon he is not the only one to whom it is granted.

Also Jesus is seen eating fish.  Not something a Spirit would need nor be able to do.

Second the spiritual.  Jesus appears in a locked room without having to first knock a hole in a wall, bust down a door or shatter a window.  Flesh and blood should make that kind of activity exceedingly difficult if not downright painful.  I've gone through gyp-rock (wall) but everyone in the room noticed and it was not considered that much of a surprise.  I've gone through door and again while folk may have been surprised I didn't wait for it to be opened, once through it there was no mystery as to how I came to be in the room.

In I Corinthians Paul talks about the corruptable putting on the incorruptable and the mortal putting on immortality.  I do not think that he is making a distinction between the purely physical and the purely spiritual.  It would appear that Paul is talking about a transformation (changing of a substance) rather than a transmutation (changing between substances).

Biblically speaking sin is that which corrupts and the wages for which ensure mortality.  Sin is not equivalent to flesh.  It is the flesh through which our sinful thoughts become sinful action.  So I am of a mind to think that once sin is stripped away flesh and spirit are redeemed and if both are redeemed why would only one of the two be worthy of resurrection?

Grace and peace to you.

John

John

Thanks for the input.  It is welcome.  However many scholars have an entirely different take on that whole issue.  The only thing that makes any sense to me is that the gospels are developing tradition and not historical biographies.  This is not to deny the truths presented therein.

I personally am of the opinion that sin is much broader then that.  I see  sin as anything which negatively effects any part of the created order.  I do not hold to absolutes beyond the Divine.

Shalom

Mate

bb

I have seen evil in many churches mostly on the right because I have not experienced a church on the extreme left.  I consider myself to be a little left of centre.  However, that is miles or even more kilometers from the right.  What has the right given us? Phelps, Robertson, Falwell, Dobson, Copeland,  and a whole host of others.

Shalom

Mate

mate your diluted to think that the left dos'nt have its share.

men will eventually fail us, regardless of left or right, in and out, up or down, what ever. 

only one perfict groom mate

CF

First of all I am neither diluted nor diluded.  All churches and all Christians have their faults even those in the centre.

Shalom

Mate

then mabey you should not Judge the right as harshly as you do based on your sole experance of onc church.

do not judge , lest you be judged, i find no love in your judments mate

shalom as well  mate

bb

I am not judging anyone.  I am stating my experiences and observations.  I will leave the judging up to the One to whom it belongs.  I am stating how they have come across to me and to many others.  What was done to me I saw as evil but I will leave that up to God to be the judge

Shalom

Mate

Without getting teh whole arguement of whether it wsa literal or not, I wonder sometimes...

Would the resurrection be any less meaningful or important as a metaphor than as a literal event? Does it have to be either? Or can it be both?

Does it need to be quantifiable?

you have stated it once to many times mate , you  are deffently judging the right  through the lens of your so called evil experance mate, mabey you dont see it, but you are doing it and that is not loving Mate.

You must be delusional because I never addressed you as such. Either that, or you can't get me off your mind.

witch

Finally someone askes a good question.  We do not know what happened at the Easter event.  Whatever it was it changed the whole course of history.  Physical or metaphorical is immaterial.  What is important is the result.

Shalom

Mate

CF your cracking me up tonight

mate it was I who addressed you

CF

It seems to me that there is a huge difference between character assassination  and attacking an idea..  In a disussion there will be disagreements but there does not have to be such callous abuse of people.  Folks can disagree without the negatives.  The op was reasonable.  If you disagree with GIA what is to prevent you from posting a valid defence.  You may not find it loving that I stand up for GIA  but perhaps someone else needed the love a little more, expecially when walking the path alone.
 

                                                     (.)

Shalom

Mate