RESURRECTION AS REFORMATION
What one cannot ignore when saying anything about Christianity is the topic of Jesus's resurrection. Throughout my posts on Christianity and religion in general, I tried to present a pragmatic approach to understanding the value of religion, in general and of Christianity, in particular. Christian pragmatism is what a true reformation of Christianity aims for. Jesus's resurrection seemingly presents a pragmatic problem; in that, most are taught to approach it from a position of belief rather than experience.
Much of what Jesus taught can be translated pragmatically. It can be experienced in real time and practiced as a way of life. The resurrection of Jesus, however, can lead one into the realm of fantasy and wishful thinking; as something one has to wait for; hope for after one physically dies; that in order to experience it, one must believe it, and so on. All of which explains why Easter becomes more about Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny than it becomes about an experience we can relate to here and now.
Resurrection as an experience, in my experience, is connected to the practice of letting go of self, of entering a state of kenosis. Few, if any, are able to sustain a kenotic state. Like Jesus, one lives into a state of kenosis, of letting go of self; of expending self, of making room in self for others, of putting the needs of others on equal footing as being one's own need. As is true with God's creative kenotic activity, as in expending Being to expand beingness, kenosis, the expending of self ultimately leads to the expansion of Self or to put into the lingo of Jesus, expands the Kingdom of God.
In other words, the capacity to experience resurrection in the here and now is possible. People who engage in kenotic activity, can likely point to any number of resurrection experiences. I've experienced resurrection once (that I'm aware of) in my own life and can say from that experience that resurrection is not something one expects; rather, resurrection comes unexpectedly and unnoticed at the time of its occurrence. Awareness of resurrection comes as an awareness that something has changed in oneself or in one's role in life or both.
THE RESURRECTION EXPERIENCE OF PAUL
Apart from the resurrection story of Jesus, the best example of such a resurrection as I described above is what I will refer to as the resurrection of Paul. Resurrection, transformation, and transfiguration are, in my opinion, interchangeable terms when pertaining to the here and now. Paul's resurrection moment came as a vision. Although Paul never talks about this experience as being a resurrection, he describes it thoroughly as dying to self (kenosis) and living into Christ as something he gained or as he writes in his letter to the Philippians, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Resurrection frequently follows a traumatic experience of some sort; something that changes one's perception of reality or awakens one to what is real about oneself and/or others. Peter had a similar resurrection moment that came in the form of a dream about being asked to eat food considered unclean in his attempt to avoid spreading the Gospel to gentiles.
In Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, Paul is blinded by the light of the resurrected Jesus in a vision he only experienced. To give this personal experience some credibility, Luke writes in Acts that those who were with him heard a sound, but didn't see any light or understood what they heard. Paul was traumatized by this experience. It should be noted that trauma is rooted in the German word for dream, as seeing things differently. Dreams are experiential. To be traumatized is to be given a different perspective that effects one emotionally as in terrifies one to the core about something that one cannot shake. Unresolved trauma can have long-lasting damaging effects. This was true in Paul's situation.
Paul's physical blindness was the result of trauma, not the bright light. He no longer could see the world as he once had. Paul needed therapy and he received it in the person of Ananias, a disciple of Jesus. Ananias walked Paul through his darkness to see the world in the light of Christ. In fact, Paul, formerly known as Saul, became Paul. He remained physically the same as Saul, but he became anything but the Saul he once was. He didn't lose Saul, but he was able to see his old persona objectively. For all practical purposes Paul was a new man.
It is in reading through Paul's letters that one gains an understanding of resurrection as an experience in the here and now. Understanding that resurrection is experiential is essential to understand the importance of what Jesus taught through word and deed. What we see lived out in Jesus's ministry and repeated in Paul's ministry is this kenotic practice of letting go of self to gain Self. In all four gospels we find the kenotic teaching about those who lose their life for the sake of Christ will gain life.
The meaning of this teaching can be misconstrued as a teaching related to martyrdom. Properly understood, this teaching is about letting go of selfish interests to find one's self resurrected in the universal being identified in Christianity as the Body of Christ.
DEATH AND RESURRECTION
As I have mentioned in past posts. I am totally agnostic when it comes to the subject of life after death. What I've experienced at the death of others is the lack of presence of the person that seconds before that person's body died was there, but that presence is clearly not there once the physical body ceases to function. In other words I don't know what happens to the person who occupied the body that was animated as a person. Does the person, the persona or the animating force, the spirit of the person die also; as in, ceases to exist?
I have also stated in my posts a belief that, theoretically speaking, this life I am now experiencing suggests there may be more to life than "this" life. My belief is not ideological but rather theoretical; as in a belief I might have in seeing an abundance of dark clouds and experiencing the feeling of high humidity leads me to believe it will rain because I have experienced rain resulting from such conditions. Such a belief is flexible: in that, it leaves room for doubt, because my experience with such weather conditions also suggests that it might not rain.
What I don't believe is that any ideological belief will effect whether one will experience life after death, much less whether one will spend that life eternally in heaven or hell. I simply don't know what happens to me when this body I inhabit dies. What I'm fairly confident in is that what happens to others will likely happen to me at the point of death because all I know is what I know now about death as observed in this life.
Theoretically speaking, the same is true when it comes to the subject of resurrection. What I know of resurrection is what I experienced as a resurrection on this side of life; that resurrection appears to happen to a person when faced with a situation where one must let go of self-interest to make room for the interest of others; that it is, in my experience, usually brought about by some traumatic event that leads to a change in perspective and/or results in a life changing experience.
THE RESURRECTION EXPERIENCE OF JESUS
The resurrection experience of Jesus is not something I can speak of from the perspective of Jesus, but rather the only way to talk of the resurrection experience of Jesus is to talk about it from the perspective of the people who experienced the resurrected Jesus.
Resurrection is not something anyone can prove; as it is strictly personal experience that happens to one. I cannot prove my resurrection experience to anyone because it is a matter of personal perception. I can talk about it as an experience that I had, but that is about as far as I can go with it. In the same way, people who "saw" the resurrected Jesus relayed their experience as just that, an experience. Fact is not a factor when it comes to personal experience. the only fact I can claim is the fact that I am talking about my experience. The lack of fact, however, does not deprive the experience of its truthfulness.
Jesus' disciples experienced his resurrection. That experience is the only factor that can be considered fact. We know nothing of what brought about that experience except what that experience relayed to those who experienced it. What we do know from the accounts provided to us in the Gospels and from the letters of Paul is that Jesus was perceived as fully resurrected.
What does being fully resurrected mean?
Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to start with what it doesn't mean. What fully being resurrected doesn't mean a physical resuscitation of Jesus of Nazareth's physical body. What most do not realize that when the disciples find the empty tomb, they literally find no physical evidence of Jesus. Period. The physical evidence of Jesus it totally absent. Unfortunately this has led many to think that for Jesus to be fully resurrected that Jesus's physical body is resurrected, but that is never said. As Paul says, Jesus is a new creation as Jesus the Christ. Specutively speaking, one could theorize that the spiritual takes on the image of the physical, the obverse of the physical embodying the image of God.
The Gospels underscore that Jesus "appears" and at times is not known until Jesus speaks. It is in his speaking that Jesus appears as fully resurrected. Even in the Gospel of John when Jesus's disciple, Thomas questions the resurrection of Jesus; says he won't believe that it happened unless his can literally touch Jesus; touch his wounds that John stops short of saying Thomas actually touched Jesus, but rather when Jesus speaks; when Jesus says touch me, that Thomas is touched at his core and says "My Lord and my God."
It is unfortunate that we take this story to mean Jesus is physically resurrected. While physically touching Jesus is implicated by the setting and pretext of this encounter, it is not explicitly stated that Thomas touched Jesus. The fact that it is not said explicitly leads me to believe that John had no intent of saying Jesus was physically touched by anyone. In fact, according to the Gospel of John, he forbids Mary Magdalene to touch him.
For Paul the physical resurrection of Jesus is not considered. The fully resurrected Jesus is a reality to Paul in that the physical body must die so that the spiritual body is resurrected, and it is the resurrected spiritual body that Paul identifies as the true body of Christ that exists in the here and the now. In other words, according to Paul and referenced in the Gospel accounts, the physical is transient, here today and literally gone tomorrow, but the spiritual and the experientially resurrected Jesus is immanent, touches us and resurrects us in the here and now to see him in the light of God's kenotic creativity, of God expending Self to expand Self or to put it in Christian lingo, bringing about the Kingdom of God.
EXPERIENCING THE RISEN AND RISING CHRIST
Would I be able to talk about my personal experience with resurrection if I knew nothing about the story of Jesus's resurrection? Probably not. The seed of resurrection was planted in my heart through the story of Jesus's resurrection. Had I not known about that story, the events that led to that outcome I wouldn't have been able to give it a name, give it a point of reference that identified the experience as being a resurrection. That story is a part of who I am and it guided me, guided my actions and reactions to a very tenuous situation.
My personal experience brought Jesus's resurrection to the forefront of my thoughts about what happened to me. It was an "Aha" moment that came to me after the fact of its occurrence. I wasn't thinking about resurrection before it happened or even shortly thereafter because I was in shock by its occurrence. I wasn't thinking that if I did this thing that thing would happen or if I let go of this position I would find myself in a different position. None of those thoughts came to mind until after what I perceived as a resurrection event in my life occurred.
Had I not known the story of Jesus' resurrection, I would not have been able to trace my experience back to its origins; to the trauma and actions that led to a change of perspective and a change of position; that would lead me seeing the needs of others as more important than my own need at the moment. I was ready to fight for what I thought was right (and I was right) but instead thought of what the cost of trying to be right; to make my case, would inflict on others, so I abandoned the fight to be right, too let go and move on. the
I was prepared to lose my job in order to save the jobs of my co-workers. And what it led to was the positions of the others being secured and me moving into newly created position to fix what was wrong in the system; something I was going to fight for become a responsibility I was charged with fixing; something I would not have thought possible, given the circumstances. The details are irrelevant here. Resurrection has nothing to do with the details or the facts of a situation. It is all about letting go in order to make space for others; to make space for God, to be willing to be recreated.
This was not where my mind was at the time, but the moment of my letting go became the moment where my mind melded with the mind of God; where I began to see the bigger picture beyond my self to see the needs of others as important as my own in a real and connected sense. I felt like I was dying and I was in the sense I saw myself entering into unknown territory. I was dying to self and therein lies the truth of that experience - a truth that goes beyond the facts; a truth that speaks of the Truth that is Christ.
It is what has led me to my creed, "What is true for Jesus is true for me." "What is true about Jesus is true about us." This is where theology must proceed from; the truth about who we are; as in, whose we are, that bigger picture that takes us beyond the facts to the very core, the very truth of our being. Like the Christmas Story, the Easter Story is OUR STORY. JESUS' STORY IS OUR STORY.
Jesus lived into being the Christ of God, a new creation that affirms the meaning of creation. Jesus' story is a story of redemption; of restoring the original meaning of who we are and whose we are. In that sense, I can say that Jesus Christ is risen and continues to rise. The resurrection is ongoing. Like the Big Bang, resurrection continues to create and recreate; to make all things new again. I don't say that from fact, but rather from a perspective derived from personal experience.
Theology is speculative, at best. We are looking through a glass darkly, as Paul would put it. We can only make speculative statements about God and Christ based on the experiences that we encounter that can find reference in scripture by which they are defined. Such experiences lead me to understand that truth exceeds fact and that truth is not the personal domain of anyone but is the essence of God who defies to be seen by being intimately immanent with us and defies to be known as a mere fact.
In some of our Holy Eucharist liturgies we proclaim, "Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again." I would say, based on experience, "That Christ is. That Christ was risen up in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. That Christ keeps rising us up until all is Christ." Resurrection is truly what reformation is about; it is gaining a new perspective and taking on a different role in the world. The question is what are we, what is the Church being resurrected to be?
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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