He is Risen!

Happy Easter!


Today is Easter Sunday - the day we remember Jesus resurrection.  


This was what persuaded me Jesus is who he says he is.  Whatever you make of Jesus you have to take seriously the resurrection narrative.  That was the turning point in the Christian story.  The one thing all the ancient evidence agrees on is that Jesus dies on Friday, was buried and the tomb was found empty on Sunday.


If Jesus is still dead, Christianity is a fraud.  But if he really did rise from the dead, then that changes everything.


There are broadly three options, and I know this is a gross simplification. 


1. Jesus enemies took the body
This is the least credible option.  They would simply have produced it to quash resurrection claims.  It also fails to account for the conversion of Paul a few years later.


2.  Jesus friends moved the body
This explanation fails on several counts.  The disciples were scared, scattered and wondering if they would be next.  Why didn't the burial site become a shrine?  What would explain the change in the disciples from terrified wimps to courageous proclaimers of the Gospel?  What would account for James, Jesus brother, converting?  


Above all, why were the followers of Jesus all willing to die for what they knew was a lie.  While people often die for what they believe, they do not die for what they know for sure is a lie.


3.  Jesus really did rise from the dead
This is the only explanation which accounts for all the facts.  Occam's Razor says that once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth.


This explanation also explains why millions of people today claim to have met Jesus and been changed, healed and forgiven by him.  It explains my experience of him.


In the Bible God makes a promise.  In Jeremiah 29:13 God promises "If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me."  Jesus himself promised, "I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." (Revelation 3:20)


Why not take him at his word?

Jesus' Death

Good Friday.  The day Jesus died. The day Jesus was punished for the sins of the world - the day Jesus said he had come for.


I find it ironic that we call today good.  What Jesus did for us is good, but it is also a tragedy.  Jesus didn't deserve to be tried by a kangaroo court, tortured and brutally murdered.  That breaks my heart.  We often see the innocent suffer, and today we see that in Jesus own experience.  


When we remember who Jesus is, God in the flesh, this is all the more amazing.  Jesus allowed this to happen, because he knew that only in this way could justice and mercy be satisfied.  There's a song that is often sung at Easter called "In Christ Alone".  One verse says,


This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.


That is what Good Friday is about.  Because Jesus died, we can have eternal life.  It's ours for the asking.  All we have to do is receive it.


The disciples were left scattered on Friday, lost and in mourning they didn't yet understand what had happened.  But Jesus' death is not the end of the story.  Sunday is coming...


Image: Google Images

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week which is the central week in the Christian year. 


It was on the first Palm Sunday that Jesus was welcomed to Jerusalem by the people - but just a few days later, those same people would be calling for his blood.


On Palm Sunday the people saw a Messianic figure and they welcomed him.  By Friday they took back the honour they'd given him, and called for his death.  Jesus knew what would happen.  On Palm Sunday he knew that the cross was ahead.  He came anyway, because, as he said, it was for this he came.  


Today we will receive a palm cross in Church to remind us of Palm Sunday.  But later each year we burn our palms to mark each others foreheads with ashes at the start of Lent.  Personally that reminds me that we often take back what we gave God, and can literally turn our lives into ashes compared to what God would have for us.  


But Jesus came to bring us to the cross. He came to lift us out of the ashes, to a freedom and forgiveness that is only possible in Jesus.  

Acceptance

Rev Jeff Bert from the Metropolitan Community Church
joins a vigil for same sex marriage.

Over the last few weeks I have heard religious authorities describe me as (among other things) immoral, intrinsically disordered and sinful.  I have heard my relationship with my partner described as wrong, of no value, and as something that can produce no good spiritual fruit.  We hear pro-marriage groups starting campaign groups with titles such as "...for marriage", as if I'm somehow against marriage!


When we hear prominent religious leaders saying these things, it's hard.  It's painful.  And it makes me angry.  


I know Jesus calls me to love these people, who are my brothers in Christ.  He asks me to accept them - even if they will not love and accept me.  That's a hard teaching.  My human instinct is to react, to fight back.  But God calls us to a higher standard.


I'm praying for marriage equality, and I am asking the Holy Spirit to give me the love to love these men.  

Image: http://www.chicagoreporter.com/news/2010/03/gay-marriage-numbers

Gay AND Christian

It gets better

No such thing as a gay Christian?

This week I've been told by several people that there is no such thing as a gay Christian.  It's like "paedo Christian" or "thieving Christian".


Sadly, it seems like some people cannot tell the difference between love and lust, or love and stealing.  They seem to assume their default position is correct, without ever having listened to another view point.  That is sad.  What's more tragic is when they declare we do not exist.  That makes it easier to demonise us, to make us an "other", to oppress and crush us.


Being gay is not a choice.  It's biological in it's very nature - DNA, MRI scans, fingerprints, left to right handed ratio, hair sworls, height, brain processing etc - all show that there is a biological basis to sexual orientation.  Not to mention many gay people, myself included, have tried to become straight.  I used counselling and self help - but I'm still gay.  That's probably because it's in my DNA (!).


So my sexuality is a given.  It is what it is, I can't change it.  But what about my faith?  I believe in Jesus, I trust him for forgiveness.  I serve him in my Church and in the social circles I move in.  I think it says a lot when more people know I'm a Christian than that I'm gay.  


To say that there is no such thing as a gay Christian is crazy, it's just closing your eyes to the facts.  Sure, we can have a conversation about whether gay and lesbian relationships are okay.  That's another issue altogether. But gay and lesbian Christians do exist, we love and worship Jesus, who died and rose again for us too.  


We will not be told we do not exist.  We will not be oppressed, and as Troy Perry said, "we won't be afraid anymore".  "God is for us, who can ever be against us?  ...Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us." (Romans 8:31, 33-34)


Image: Google Images