The real Jesus
March 29, 2009 by Bill
A popular hymn in Christian churches is “Fairest Lord Jesus”. I have wondered if the author of that hymn ever read the life of Jesus in the Gospels. Assuming they are even half way correct there is certainly no fairest Jesus presented as “fairer than the meadows…fairer than the moonlight…fairer than the twinkling stars”. You almost choke over the perfumed sweetness of it all.
I say again, assuming the Gospels are even half way correct, there is no “fairest of the fair” there, no spine-less wishy-washy trying to be everyone’s friend. You would never hear Jesus singing “smile and the world smiles with you”…or hear him say. “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
He would never have taken a Dale Carnegie course on “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” He would never have been voted “Man of the Year” by the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce.
To the Pharisees he said…”you vipers…you hypocrites…you are full of extortion and rapacity…You are like whitewashed tombs…you are full of dead men’s bones and iniquity”. To the religiously pious and self righteous he said: “The prostitutes will go into the Kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31) You don’t hear many sermons on that text by those who play church.
This is the man who responded with anger on many occasions and who walked through the temple and cleaned it out. He had no intention of being everyone’s buddy or friend. No imperial power wastes time crucifying contemplative, harmless, spiritual mystics. Jesus was killed in the manner of one found guilty of insurrection. “Fairest” people are not killed for insurrection.
This man, born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew and said repeatedly he was only fulfilling the Jewish religion. Being a Jew means that today he would not be admitted to many of our private clubs run by Christians. Many of us Christians who belong to those clubs would have to visit with Jesus out on the sidewalk if he dropped by.
Those Jesus chose for friends would be a terrible offense to many of us sitting in our cozy pews on Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene, a prostitute: Peter and Andrew, James and John, crude fishermen, Zacchaeus and Matthew, hated tax collectors. Jesus was accused of being a “drunkard and a glutton”. (Matthew 11:19) and of “being beside himself.”
Goddess of the dawn
March 22, 2009 by Bill
The word “Easter” does not appear in the entire bible. The word was not Christian, and was not even used in church literature until late in the church’s history. “Easter” is the name of the goddess of the spring. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the spring festival was celebrated honoring “Easter”, the goddess. The church borrowed the festival and kept the goddess’ name.
Even older than Easter as the goddess of the spring was a much wider worship and adoration of her as the goddess of the dawn. In our language the root of “Easter” is “East”, the place of the dawn. In nearly all the languages of Northern Europe the words for Easter come from a root meaning the dawn.
Three thousand years before Jesus was born, poetic and pious Hindus kindled their morning fires, made their morning sacrifices, and sang their morning song of praise to the goddess of the dawn in ancient India. Many scholars consider the “hymn to the dawn” as among the finest of the Vedas. How they praised her, reborn in beauty in every dawn, coming with radiant face to drive away the darkness and its dangers and arouse all creatures to the joys of another day.
That was the original Easter worship, the daily praise and adoration for the dawn. It survives to this day. We still have our Easter sunrise services in every village and hamlet, a vestige of a celebration to the dawn that began 5000 years ago, maybe even longer. And 5000 years later, we will still sing as our processional hymn on Easter Sunday in Christian churches…”All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voices…thou burning sun with golden beam…thou rising morning…in praise…rejoice…alleluia…”
The moon and resurrection
March 15, 2009 by Bill
If you ask, what phenomenon played a vital part in developing the human imagination to believe in a life after death, it was, quite simply, observing the moon. The part that the moon has played in resurrection beliefs is one of the most fascinating subjects in the history of religions.
The sun is always the same. The moon, on the other hand is born new, grows to maturity, dies and is resurrected. The period of the new moon, the resurrection of the moon, became one of the most important religious celebrations in all primitive cultures.
As late as 600 B.C. in the Hebrew culture of the Old Testament, the new moon demanded special and generous offering and sacrifices. The Hebrew Sabbath was originally a new moon celebration. As the moon is reborn at the end of the third day, so shall the dead be reborn to a new life…
And do not miss this next fact. Even church father, St. Augustine, writing within the framework of 4th century Christianity, still used the cycles of the moon as his “proof” that there was a resurrection from the dead. Other church fathers used the same argument as “proof”. Little did they realize, in their primitive superstitions, that someday we would walk on that same moon.
“On the third day he rose again from the dead” is a phrase found in primal religious liturgies that refer to the resurrection of the moon after the third night of darkness. “As the moon dies and cometh to life again, so we also, having to die will rise again.” Declared the San Juan Capistrano Indians in celebrating the new moon.
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